Mel Reay issues Sunderland transfer and injury update ahead of crucial £74,000 fixture

Sunderland head coach Mel Reay says the club are working hard to make an addition to their squad in the January transfer window.

The Black Cats have had a positive first half of the campaign, currently sitting fifth in the Women's Championship table and just three points off the leaders Birmingham City. And so while no major business is expected this month, the club are looking to add some depth and quality if possible.

Reay said: "We're having a couple of discussions with certain players. There's no concrete news I can give you at this stage but we are trying very hard to bring someone in, yeah."

Sunderland return from their winter break on Sunday when they face Exeter City women in the fourth round of the FA Cup. While Sunderland are favourites for their game, Reay says the squad are under no illusions as to just how big a test this will be. Exeter will be on home turf on are having a strong campaign, sitting third in the very competitive National League South division.

The game has an added importance to both sides, with the FA Cup prize money rising in recent seasons. Sunderland's third-round win banked £35,000, while the winner of this game earns £54,000. Not only that, reaching the fifth round will guarantee a further £20,000 even in defeat. Whichever side wins also significantly increases their chances of landing a big draw against a WSL side.

The importance of the game goes beyond those financial factors for Reay, however. It's a crucial week in getting the players back to match sharpness after the winter break and with the schedule this season even sparser than usual, Reay says more fixtures will be vital to their league campaign.

"The players are fully aware of Exeter, we've done a lot of work this week and some of our players were tasked with researching them over the Christmas period," Reay said.

"They're fully prepared, they know they're facing a good team. It's important financially this game and with the head coach's hat on, I'm also looking at it as if we win, we get another game. That helps us build momentum because it avoids another free weekend, so we really want to keep going in this competition so we can keep building from week to week as a team. It will help our league campaign [if we progress]. I'll put out the strongest team that I think can go out and win the game, there's no doubt about that. That'll be the case going forward from now until the end of the season."

Sunderland will welcome captain Brianna Westrup back to the squad this weekend in a major boost ahead of the second half of the campaign. Westrup has been absent since the opening day of the campaign due to injury but made her return in an academy win over Chelsea in midweek, playing 45 minutes. Westrup appears likely to return as a substitute initially but should be in contention for the league fixtures ahead.