Sunderland boss Mel Reay gives a transfer and injury update - plus her verdict on opening-day draw

Sunderland Women have suffered a setback in their bid to strengthen their squad but Mel Reay says they are working hard to make new additions.

A prospective deal has fallen through but with the women's transfer window not shutting until the middle of September, there remains time for further recruitment.

Reay had better news on the injury front ahead of this weekend's trip to Sheffield United, with summer signing Jenna Dear fit to feature after picking up a knock in the season opener against London City Lionesses.

Keira Ramshaw remains an absentee as she bids to get to the bottom of a foot issue that has hampered her recent availability.

"Jenna just took a knock to the achilles but she was back training this week so she'll be fine for Sunday," Reay said.

"Keira is a bit more of a difficult one, we're going to get a second opinion from a foot specialist and then once we've gathered all that information together, we'll make a decision on what's best in terms of her rehab.

"There's nothing yet in terms of incomings, we had one fall through that i was really disappointed with. It was nothing to do with us, it was the other club, so that was frustrating. There's still a bit of time before the women's window shuts so we're still working hard to try and bring in a couple of new faces."

It has been a busy summer of change for Sunderland and so the performance in the 0-0 draw at Eppleton last Sunday offered much encouragement after a frustrating end to the last campaign.

Sunderland had the second best expected-goals against in the whole of the Championship on opening day, and also created some good chances that on reflection they should have taken.

Reay is expecting a tough test on a big pitch at Bramall Lane this Sunday afternoon, but says everyone has taken real confidence from that display.

"I was really happy with the point, the first game is always difficult when you don't know much about the opposition - they had pretty much a brand new line up.

"I thought we performed really well both in and out of possession, and the data backed that up. There's probably a bit of frustration that we didn't take all three points but it's certainly a point in the right direction considering that we hadn't taken a point off them in our time in the Championship so far.

"We think it's a valuable point. I think we showed glimpses of some really good stuff, with a brand new midfield trio for example. We spoke about clean sheets as well, and that's something we can take confidence from.

"I think the players we brought in, we knew that they had real value and experience. It's obviously important that they deliver that and I think they did that on Sunday. It's really important going forward that they continue to raise that bar higher.

"We were really happy with the business we did and a lot of those players are already fan favourites off the back of their home debuts."

Sheffield United secured a point thanks to a 91st-minute equaliser away at Charlton Athletic in their opening fixture last weekend.