'Hell of a difference': Mel Reay's message to fans as Sunderland prepare for crucial home fixtures

Reay's side welcome Coventry United to Wearside on Sunday, with the visitors currently seven points below Sunderland at the bottom of the Women's Championship.Sheffield United then visit Eppleton next weekend, sitting one point above Sunderland as it stands.

The game against Coventry United has been pushed back to a 2pm kick-off to give it the best possible chance of going ahead amid the freezing temperatures, and despite a frustrating defeat to Lewes last weekend, Reay is confident her side can bounce back on home turf.

"We don't seem to be getting the rub of the green at all and on reflection I think my post-match comments last week were correct, it was a penalty for a foul on Katy Watson in the first half," Reay said.

"Those moments change games - we were really brave in how we played, we changed shape to match them up and it worked. We played to our strengths in terms of utilising the pace we had in the forward line and created chances.

"There's no need to panic, we've still got a third of the season left and we've got five games out of seven at home. It's a big rallying cry for the fans really to come out and back the team if they can because when it's loud and you can hear them cheering us on when we're attacking, it can make a hell of a difference.

"You saw that at Durham and against Manchester United, and so hopefully they can get out and give us their backing for these five home games that we've got left this season.

"We've got to take it game by game, the focus is on Coventry United for us this week and they're a totally different team to what they were before Christmas. We'll analyse them and see where we think we can exploit them, and hopefully we can do that."

Coventry United's form has improved significantly following an active January transfer window, though they were beaten 5-1 by Durham last weekend.