'Two fires burning': Everything Mel Reay said on transfers and Sunderland's impressive start to the season

Sunderland Women have made an impressive start to their Championship campaign, beating Sheffield United 1-0 at Bramall Lane last Sunday.

Mary McAteer's first-half goal was the difference between the two teams and built on an encouraging 0-0 draw with London City Lionesses, who were title challengers last season, on the opening day of the campaign.

Mel Reay's side now face a long trip to Southampton for Sunday's game, with their opposition having won both of their fixtures so far.

Here's everything the Sunderland head coach said to The Echo in her weekly press conference ahead of the game...

When we spoke last week you were happy with a point and a clean sheet but a bit frustrated you couldn't take your chances. If you'd been offered four points and two clean sheets, you'd have snapped our hands off?

I'm really happy with the way we've started.

It's always important to get off to a good start because I think it builds confidence in the group and shows that they're trying to play the way we want them to play.

We got our rewards for that on Sunday.

How pleasing are the performances, as well as the results? You've got two clean sheets but from the opening two games, you've managed to improve the style and attacking threat in a fairly short space of time?

The performance helps. The result is always the most important thing and sometimes, you take those scrappy wins.

But when you're playing well and trying to do the right things in terms of our attacking and defending principles, we can see that they're trying to do that and hopefully that will get us more positive results moving forward.

We only had three clean sheets last season and we've had two in two this season. I always say to the players that it gives you a platform - and I think the attacking style is just something that will just continue to grow.

I think the players are a bit frustrated that they haven't put more chances away, but you look at the team and it's a brand new midfield. Emily Scarr is playing on the left wing which is something she hasn't done for over a year, and Mary McAteer is a new signing on the right wing. All of these relationships are just going to take a little bit of time to develop. I think more goals are going to come.

You probably could have killed the game off a bit sooner on Sunday - how were the nerves when 11 minutes of added time was given?

Eleven and then a couple more after that!

It felt like we were playing for an hour in the second half, which just feels too long. No one should be running around non-stop for an hour, it's exhausting [for the players]. It was a red hot day as well. There were probably moments where we could have managed the game better and headed for the corner flag. We had a great chance through Katie Kitching as well, but we got the three points and that's the main thing.

You mentioned Katie who has made a huge impression - talk us through identifying her as a possible addition and how impressed you've been?

She's an explosive midfielder. We knew bits about her because she'd been at London City, and she actually went to University of South Florida and I know the head coach there really well.

Steph [Libby] and I did a lot of work over the summer in terms of trying to identify the right players and I thought the whole midfield were terrific at Bramall Lane. They all complement each other, they all have different strengths.

Katie is such a hard runner, she breaks lines and with that engine she can do it for 90 minutes. We want to add goals to her game, that's a target for her because we don't think she had as many shots previously in her career. We're working hard on that and I think once she finds her rhythm, she's going to bag a few for us.

Southampton were impressive last year and have won their first two games, given the length of the trip etc is this another step up for the team?

We went to St Mary's last year and it was a very close game, and I'd like to think we've improved the squad since then.

So we go in good spirits, they're well organised and they're used to playing on that big pitch. It's going to be 30 degrees down there on Sunday, but the girls feel full of confidence and they've certainly got nothing to fear.

It was obviously a tough game last week physically - have you come through that OK?

We've got a few aches and pains and we had a lot of players in the ice bath yesterday [Tuesday] but there's no new injuries, we're all good on that front.

You were disappointed last week that a potential transfer had fallen through, where are you at with that a week on?

It's ongoing. We've got two little fires burning and about nine days left until the window shuts, so I'm hopeful.

I think we need a couple of extra additions, just to give us that depth in the squad. I think we'd be slim as it stands if we did pick up a couple of injuries, and we don't want to be short on numbers.

I'm delighted with the squad but a couple more would add that competition. It's a nice feeling for us [to have four points], it's a habit isn't it and the experience in the squad will keep driving it. We're not complacent, the standards are high and we know we need to maintain them.