Captain Steph Bannon reflects on the success of last season and gives her thoughts ahead of the opening game on Sunday ...

As we draw the curtain down on what was a tremendous season, there has been a lot of hard work to ensure we are ready to kick off the new season.

Last season, as many of you know, saw Sunderland Ladies make history by reaching the F.A Cup Final. As well as our fantastic cup run, we achieved promotion to the National Premier Division, whilst our reserves also gained promotion; an aim which both teams set out to achieve and successfully accomplished.

I am sure many of the girls will agree with me when I say that reaching an FA Cup Final is something, that as a little girl playing football, you dream of.   En route to the final, we saw off some very tough competition, teams that people never give us a chance against, but we always believed in ourselves and never gave up.

Playing against Chelsea in the semi-final at the Stadium of Light was a special day for all, especially the Sunderland supporters amongst us.  For myself, being on my birthday, it was a present not many people could say they’ve ever had.   The atmosphere around training was very positive and everyone was buzzing.  As the final whistle went and we knew we were in the FA Cup Final, I honestly don’t think it sunk in, it maybe even took a week or two. It was something that only one member of our squad had experienced at the time and everyone was looking forward to it, but we all knew that the most important thing was not to be overawed by the venue or occasion and this was enforced by all the coaching staff.  The game and day was a massive achievement and everyone involved with Sunderland will remember that day and should be proud of themselves.

Gaining promotion to the National Division is something that everyone is very excited about. It was a very tough season and knowing that Lincoln already had the points in the bag, the end of the season run-in was even harder for us, knowing exactly what results we needed in order to gain promotion.  After drawing with local rivals Newcastle, someone said “Well girls, we have no lifelines left now!”.  With only 4 games to go, we knew we needed 4 wins to ensure promotion.  Everyone within the team stayed calm and did a fantastic job.  It was a very long season for us and a bit of a rollercoaster ride at times,  but overall a brilliant season. This was rewarded at the FA Awards by our manager, Mick, getting Manager of the Year.  An honour that was fully deserved.

After the season we were given about 3-4 weeks off before we were back in for pre-season training. The time off was a good rest for everyone and gave everyone time to recover from what had been a busy season. Personally, for me it meant I could finally have a Sunday dinner, which is always a bonus! During the time off, our goalkeeper, Helen Alderson, has an operation on her ACL, in which we all wish her a speedy recovery and hope to see her back between the sticks as soon as possible.

Pre-season has been intense, with everyone within the squad working hard to regain their fitness.  In the friendly matches we have played, we have had some strong opposition.  We have played some very good football and hopefully we can take that into the season with us. We have a new addition to the squad in Suzie Winn, who has impressed all during pre-season.

We are all now really looking forward to getting started on Sunday, against Britsol Academy, knowing that all games are going to be a tough test for us. It’s going to a competitive season for us all, but one which I, along with the rest of my team mates, are thoroughly looking forward to; welcoming the likes of Arsenal, Everton and Chelsea to the Hetton Centre. We have set ourselves a few aims for the season and hopefully we can achieve them. The ambitions of the club can be a reality if we all work hard.

I would also like to say a massive thank you to SAFC for all their support and everyone else who has kindly offered to help support us this year.

Stephanie Bannon (Captain)