Sunderland captain Keira Ramshaw opens up on her season so far, a major accolade and what's next

There were multiple opportunities to depart for pastures new but Ramshaw never wavered; never contemplated giving up on her club.

Which is why this conversation is noteworthy in itself. After all the pain and doubt that came with that enforced double-relegation, the COVID curtailments and everything in between, Sunderland are a Championship side and with two games to go, they have already ensured that they will be again next season.

A club and a team that so often had its fate settled away from the pitch is thriving. It’s some feeling, to be looking to the future with such genuine optimism.

“It’s been an amazing experience,” Ramshaw tells The Echo.

“When the demotion happened it was no fault of our own, and it was gutting.

“My main aim then was to get it back to where I know it belongs, because I love it so much.

“Even if it was going to take until I retired to try and get there I was going to keep going and going.

“It’s amazing now to be building this squad, we’ve got the RTC and some fantastic young players coming through, we’ve got great facilities, an amazing coaching staff and all the staff who work in the background actually.

“They keep pushing us forward and help prepare us week in, week out the best way they possibly can.

“We’re in a fantastic place and a club and we just have to keep building on it now.”

Which is not to say that it has all been plain sailing, for player or for club. Far from it.

Ramshaw was thrilled but shocked and humbled to be named the player of the year by supporters earlier this week, because by her own admission her campaign has been ‘stop-start’.

There have been some big contributions and some very important goals along the way, but to say luck has not always been on her side has been an understatement.

If resilience is the key quality of this side and this journey over the last few years, then Ramshaw has again had to embody it.

“It’s the second time I’ve won the award and it was unexpected because I’ve had an up-and-down season,” she explains.

“I had a really bad knee infection when I had a tooth go into my knee in the Coventry game at the start of the season, I’ve had COVID, my dad had a heart attack, so there’s been a lot of ups and downs.

“So it means a lot to me, and it’s going well at the moment.

“It’s massively important to just keep going when things are [tough] and I think football is a good distraction sometimes.

“I’m not one who has had a lot of injuries in the past to be honest, but I’ve had a lot to contend with so for the supporters to vote was absolutely fantastic and I’m so thankful to all of them.

“What I’d say as well is that any one of the lasses could have picked up that award, they’ve been phenomenal week after week and I could go through the entire squad and tell you about how fantastic they’ve been. Honestly I’m super proud of them, and to see Neve [Herron] win the young player of the year as well, she’s been fantastic this season and she is only going to get better.”

Sunderland’s season started strongly but perhaps inevitably, midwinter was tough going in a ferociously competitive league.

It made what followed all the more encouraging. Sunderland began to find their feet, the football improving rapidly and eventually, inevitably, the results followed.

They have taken ten points from their last ten games and Ramshaw is a proud captain: “Probably half of our team, if not more, haven’t played at his level before but they have proved our right to be where we are.

“We’ve competed with some professional teams, we’ve gone to a Super League team in Birmingham and taken them to extra time. From there our confidence just grew and grew, and we built on it.

“We had a dip in form or so it looked, but we were actually playing really well and just not getting results. That’s obviously the tough part of football, but we knew that the results would come and we didn’t give up.

“The young ones showed a lot of coverage and bravery to pull the shirt on and gave their all, and it’s a massive thing for me as a captain to try and support them in that.”

There is not much that Ramshaw has not seen or experienced in a Sunderland career now spanning well over a decade.

There are still so many chapters left to be written, though, and the captain is looking forward with optimism.

“Individually it’s just about being the best possible captain I can, supporting the young players and the team,” Ramshaw says.

“Collectively, we’re safe and so now it’s about keeping our foot on the pedal and building momentum.“Hopefully we can get some new signings in for the new season and just build from there.

“I’d like to think we can start to challenge towards the top four which is a big goal for us.

“We can’t look too far ahead and we definitely can’t get ahead of ourselves because there’s so much hard work ahead, but it would be good to start getting up towards the end of the table.”

A team and a captain have been through it all but make no mistake, this is just the beginning.