Sunderland manager Melanie Reay says that her side were good value for their 1-0 away day victory at Coventry United this afternoon.
The Lady Black Cats made their return to elite football at the Butts Park Arena and they didn’t disappoint, beating a Coventry United side containing several quality summer additions.
Sunderland performed well from the first whistle until the last, matching Coventry United throughout and causing plenty of problems for the opposition defence. Those comments were echoed by Reay after the match with the Sunderland boss believing that her side fully deserved their victory.
“We have more than held our own in that game;” Reay told FAWSL Full-Time. “I thought that we were the better team, I thought we created the better chances.
“We were really well organised. I thought Claudia (Moan) and the back-four were strong, sniffed out anything that was thrown at them and we have quality going forward.
“We are a young team, we will grow into the league and we will get better as well. I’m just delighted to start the season with three points on the road.”
After spending three years in the FA Women’s National League, Sunderland certainly don’t want to be back there come May. Reay went on to say that the club know the steps that they need to take to go forward with the focus set to shift to next weekend’s game against Blackburn Rovers at The Stadium of Light.
She added “We have done our research. We have looked at the stats and we know what it takes to stay in the league and to be challenging for the league and we have issued that to the players.
“We are just going to be taking it game-by-game, that’s what we have to do, we don’t get too carried away when we win and we don’t get too upset when we lose.
“The Blackburn game is going to be another challenge. We will look at the footage and put a plan in place to get three points next week.”
Sunderland’s game against Blackburn Rovers at The Stadium of Light is scheduled to kick-off at 2pm on Sunday.
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