Mel Reay warns against 'internal pressure' ahead of crunch Charlton game in Championship

Mel Reay won't add "internal pressure" to her Sunderland squad ahead of this Sunday's crunch clash against Charlton Athletic.

Sunderland Women were unbeaten in nine games coming into last weekend's game against Blackburn Rovers but succumbed to a first league loss of the season.

The result left the Black Cats in second position and level on points with the division's new leaders Charlton Athletic, with the two set to meet this Sunday at The Valley in the Championship in a hugely important game.

Reay, though, warned against looking too far ahead to the future despite her side's excellent start to the season and insisted that her team take one game at a time.

"If we can replicate what we have done in the first 10 games in the next 10 games then we are going to be pretty close but going off Sunday, Reay said when asked by The Echo about her ambitions for the season. "If you don't perform to the levels on any given day then ultimately that is what can happen.

"We have to just take it one game at a time and that we are fully present and at the levels needed to get something from it. We have two league games before Christmas, two tough league games as well by the way - Charlton and Birmingham and another FA Cup tie in there and another Conti Cup.

"Four games before Christmas and then we will take stock in January and see where we are at. Hopefully, we can go on another good run in the New Year as well."

"We are very much just in the here and now and I think if you start putting targets on it then that becomes very much an internal pressure," Reay added when pressed on her group's behind-the-scenes aims.

"The internal target is to win the next game - and if we keep doing that, them short-term goals, ultimately we will be up there come the end of the season.

"Was the ambition at the beginning of the season to win the league? Probably not but we have done all the right things in the summer and we're doing all the right things currently and ultimately, sticking to our processes and seeing where it takes us."