Mel Reay 'extremely disappointed' with Sunderland Women's 5-0 and 3-0 Championship losses

Sunderland Women's head coach Mel Reay says she is “extremely disappointed” with her side’s poor start to the season.

The Black Cats lost at home at Eppleton Colliery Welfare on Sunday against Southampton. With the game level for the majority, Sunderland conceded three goals in the final 15 minutes of the Championship fixture to throw away any hope of getting a result.

“The result is the only thing that matters,” Reay said after the game. ”We've come away not picking any points up again, which we're extremely disappointed with. In comparison to last week, I thought there was a good reaction in the first half. I did think we played some good stuff. We've created some good chances. But we've got to be ruthless and you've got to put the ball in the back of the net when you get them opportunities.

Sunderland also lost their opening game of the season heavily with Birmingham City thrashing Reay’s side by five goals in the Championship before another loss to Southampton a week later.

“Look, it's a harsh league and we're in a difficult position at the minute where we're creating chances early in games and not punishing teams when we're on top,” Reay added. “There were lots of positives in the first half. But I think once we've conceded that first goal, it's hit us hard. They've got the second and third one, which again is extremely disappointing.”

When asked about the fans, Reay added: “It's a great turnout and the fans want to see us win games. We want to be winning games and we have to do better. We have to stop making mistakes in possession, which ultimately costs us games. We're turning the ball over in the wrong areas and teams are punishing. We love playing here.

“We love playing at home in front of our home fans. We want to be putting on better performances for them to be proud of as well. We've got a pause in the season. We've got our free week next week. We'll dust ourselves down and we've got to keep going. We've got to stick together and we've got to try and grind this tough moment out.”