'Done really well': Sunderland boss Mel Reay reflects on her team's progress as major milestone nears

The Black Cats have moved 11 points clear of Coventry United with five games left to play, and so have the chance to mark Women's Football Weekend by landing a third year in the second tier.

In an increasingly full-time and rapidly improving league, Reay praised her players for their ongoing efforts.

"We were under no illusions as to how difficult this season was going to be," Reay said.

"The league has improved massively from last season along with all the teams in it and had to find new levels ourselves. We always knew there were going to be ups and downs so it was really important to set the players short-term goals to work towards, we put things in place to manage their own performance, with their individual own plans and targets. We feel we squeeze a lot into a part-time programme and we try to be as professional as we can. The analysis, the unit meetings, we get a lot crammed into a short space of time.

"The players have done really well. We're still building, the club have got a five-year plan and we want to improve year on year, and we've also got to improve with the speed that the league is moving at in order to compete. Our short-term focus in the next five games, three at home, we want to go to Charlton to try and get three points and be mathematically safe."

Sunderland have taken four points from their last two games and Reay praised the combination of youth and experience as goalkeeper Claudia Moan and striker Liz Ejupi helped rescue a half-time deficit against Sheffield United last time out.

"It wasn't our best performance but we showed another side to us, we showed that resilience after going behind and in the end it's a valuable point," Reay said.

"We wanted to go on a run and we've put four points on the board, and it's just about chipping away and trying to get further and further away from the bottom and see how high we can finish.

"Claudia was fantastic, she kept us in the game with those saves and that shot stopping is her strength. She's still got areas of her game to work on and she continues to do that, but those are the moments in the games where you need your goalkeeper to step up and she's certainly done that for us.

"The importance of Liz coming on at half time was massive for us, she was a big signing for us in January and was unlucky to get a little niggle when she was on international duty. We've had to be really patient but she was so eager to get on and with the first half being so poor I just said, 'are you ready now?' I think she gives the players around her a boost.

"I think those experienced players help you get through those moments of difficulty, Liz and Abbey [Joice] combined for the equaliser and I think that experience can help the pressure off the younger players a bit."