Mel Reay gives team news update as Sunderland look to bounce back against Sheffield United

Steadily improving performances had led to Sunderland landing their first league win over the year against Charlton, but last Sunday saw them suffer a disappointing 2-1 defeat against Blackburn.

Sunderland had been one kick away from securing a valuable point when Keira Ramshaw's last-minute penalty was well saved, but Reay says the group were disappointed with the drop in collective performance level.

The Sunderland head coach added that the points target for the campaign was still in reach and that was now the focus with five games to go.

"We were really frustrated," Reay said.

"We knew quite a bit about them having played them twice, and off the back of such a good win we wanted to really push on.

"To come away with nothing was disappointing, but even worse to come away having not played well.

"It felt like a really bad loss, with the progress we'd made. We'd had a few games where we'd not got anything but taken a lot of positives, so this felt like we'd slipped back and to be fair the players felt that, they were really disappointed coming away.

"We went through the game on Tuesday and then it's about putting it to bed really, focusing on the following game and getting a reaction against Sheffield United.

"Again, we've always said that there will be highs and lows this season, we can't get too disappointed.

"We're still on track on to achieving our goals and getting towards where we want to be.

"It's five big games left and games we can get points out if we put the work rate and follow our game plan."

Sheffield United sit three points above the Black Cats in the table but the two sides played out a close and entertaining 2-2 draw at Eppleton last month.

Sunderland also won the Conti Cup game between the two sides earlier this season after a penalty shootout, and so will be hopefil of taking something from the contest.

"We drew 2-2 last month and it was an end-to-end game," Reay said.

"The goal we scored through Abbey Joice really showcased what we can do on the ball. It's going to be tough but this is why we're in this league, we want to play against better teams."

Reay is set to be without two key senior players for the game, with Louise Griffiths suspended after picking up her fifth yellow card of the season last weekend.

Keira Ramshaw is also set to miss the game after testing positive for COVID-19, though defender Megan Beer is set to return to the squad.

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