'Really proud': Mel Reay reacts as Sunderland kickstart their season with massive result

Mel Reay spoke of her pride in her Sunderland players after they landed a vital win over promotion candidates London City Lionesses.

It had been a difficult start to the campaign for Sunderland with heavy defeats against Birmingham City and Southampton, with captain Brianna Westrup then ruled out until January with an injury. The visit of a side who invested heavily in players this summer and seem certain to challenge for the title posed another big test of Reay's side, but they produced a spirited display and ran out 1-0 winners thanks to Natasha Fenton's second-half goal.

"I'm really proud of the players, we had a lot of time to prepare for this fixture and we've had a lot of tough and honest conversations over the last two weeks," Reay said.

"They put a performance in there that everyone can be proud of, we're really delighted to get the three points on the board to kick off our season.

"We never doubted ourselves, we just didn't hit the performance levels we needed over the last two games. We stick together through thick and thin, and I think that showed more than anything together. Cheering every tackle, every counter, it was a big team effort from those off the pitch as well as on it. We asked the players to step up, the players have hit the high performances level we needed from them and got their full reward."

The win lifted Sunderland off the foot of the Championship table ahead of their League Cup campaign beginning at Sheffield United on Thursday night.