Abbey Joice has given her take as SAFC Women begin to return for pre-season, ahead of the 2022-23 Barclays Women’s Championship campaign.
The Lasses will undertake an eight-week pre-season training programme ahead of the season’s curtain raiser on August 21, having secured survival in the Championship last term.
“I thought as a team, we had our ups and our downs last season,” Joice said.
“We set the task to stay in the division with the young team that we’ve got, so I thought we consolidated that well and performed well enough to achieve that.”
Mel Reay and Steph Libbey have already added a trio of experienced new signings to the Women’s first-team squad, in the shape of Nicki Gears, Abby Holmes and Tyler Dodds – all three of whom have either played for the club or for Reay or Libbey previously.
“That’s what makes this team, you know. A lot of the players we’ve brought in over the years have played here before, played with many of us or under Mel and Steph before, and know what it means to be here,” said midfielder Joice.
“So many of us have been here before, grown up playing here and it makes the team better and makes us tick. It’s something I do consider all the time.
“To have that common goal of knowing what it means to play for Sunderland I think really helps us perform and makes it that bit more special.”
Joice is open to seeing what pre-season can offer the squad, as the Lasses now look to progressively elevate themselves to higher aims at Championship level.
“We know how hard we have to work. Pre-season is there for us to work out how we want to play and go from there.
“Our aim will definitely be a higher finishing position, and the players that we’ve brought in so far this summer have a lot of experience at this level – it will be interesting to see if and where they could take over in the team.
“The mindset of the team might change having secured our league position last year – I think we can give a bit more in attack and get ourselves on the front foot.”