BEFORE Paige Peake was a key figure in Southampton FC Women's defence, she worked alongside Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna.
McKenna is now of course one of the managers looking to stifle Southampton's men's team from bouncing back to the Premier League.
This puts Peake in a unique position. "He is great," the 21 year old admits when asked how the Northern Irish coach is to work with.
"He is very, very intelligent. He has a very good understanding of the game and he is very good with people as well.”
Having signed professional terms at part-time Ipswich Women in 2021, Peake took up a role working with the Men's first team as a performance analyst.
It is here where she crossed paths with McKenna, who took charge following Paul Cook's departure. When he arrived from Manchester United, McKenna wanted training sessions to be filmed by a drone, a role which Peake carried out.
She would also analyse the Tractor Boy's opposition to spot trends in how they scored and conceded goals. She also spent a brief time working in their recruitment department before making the switch to Saints.
Not only was Peake working in the professional men's game as a teenager, but she also began training with the club's under-18 side.
“I was the only one who took the professional contract as meaning I worked for the club full time," she reflected. "Being around football all the time massively aided my development.
"Training with the boys helped me so much. There wasn’t much difference between us technically and tactically. But there was a difference between the speed of play and how strong they were.
“It helped me adapt and find other ways to impose myself. With the job I did, being around football and seeing Ipswich in League One, it was a massive year for me - I gained so much knowledge."
Upon joining Saints, Peake joined a full-time women’s club for the first time in her career. Unlike at Ipswich, where she only trained a few times a week, Peake was now living in the bubble of professional football as a player.
Having been exposed to the men’s game at her previous club, a full-time schedule in the women’s game presented new ways for Peake to develop.
She continued: “Because I knew I was never going to play with the boys on the weekend it was always about what I could get out of training.
“It was almost a very selfish perspective of being in training. I could never play for them. Here, the standard is better because we are in a higher division.
“Now, for me, training is all about the team. I need to get my individual focus out of training, but I am always doing everything I need to do to give us a chance of winning on the weekend.
“In that respect, it’s completely different. Because they were younger, a lot of their training was development-orientated rather than shape work. It was perfect for me.”
In her first season at Saints (the 2022-23 campaign), Peake was focused on adjusting to a new environment. In moving to the south coast she left home for the first time.
In early conversations with Marianne Spacey-Cale, the boss explained how she felt Peake had a good understanding of the game and set out where she wanted her to improve.
“For me, I just wanted to impose myself on the team and the league," she added. "As we have gone through I have learned and developed. I have picked up quite a lot along the way.
“I am a very ambitious player - that is what attracted me to come to Southampton in the first place. When they got promoted from tier three I knew they wouldn’t settle for stagnating in the Championship.
“The values I have and the values of the club aligned. I saw it as the best place to come. Hopefully, we can get promoted this season.
“You’d always want to do it sooner rather than later, but it’s not going to be catastrophic if we don’t go up this year. We are a young squad that has shown that we can compete against the WSL teams.
“If we did go up, we have shown ourselves as a team that can compete in that league. That is massive. We have got a good balance of young and experienced players.
“Even though some of us are young, we have had so much playing time already in our careers that we are potentially more experienced than other players who aren’t getting as many minutes in the WSL.”
Saints Women currently sit third in the Barclays Women’s Championship on 30 points after 17 games - four points behind league leaders Sunderland.
However, Southampton are tied on 30 points with Crystal Palace and Charlton Athletic, who have both played two games less than Spacey-Cale’s side.
Saints are back in action on Sunday, March 17, when they take on Reading at St Mary’s.
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