Electrical connector equipped with stabilized shielding plate

An electrical connector comprising:

• an insulative housing defining a mating cavity communicating forwardly with an exterior along a front-to-back direction;
• two rows of contacts retained in the housing and located by two sides of the mating cavity in a vertical direction perpendicular to the front-to-back direction;
• an insertion slit formed in the housing and communicatively located behind the mating cavity in the front-to-back direction;
• a metallic shielding plate forwardly inserted into the insertion slit from a rear side of the housing, said shielding plate including a plate, a retention section located at a middle section of a front edge region of the plate with a notch therein to form a pair of wings by two sides of the notch along a longitudinal direction perpendicular to both the vertical direction and the front-to-back direction, each wing forming barbed structures extending into the notch, a pair of spring fingers respectively extending forwardly and obliquely from tail sections of the corresponding wings, respectively, and into the mating cavity;
• and
• the housing includes a rib receive within the notch to interfere with the barbed structures by two sides in the longitudinal direction;
• wherein
• the shielding plate further includes a pair of lances having barbed structures thereof at two opposite longitudinal ends of the front edge region with corresponding spaces aside in the longitudinal direction, and a free end of the corresponding spring finger is received within the space when the spring finger is rearwardly deflected during mating;
• wherein
• the barbed structures of the lances are aligned with the barbed structures of the wings in the longitudinal direction.