And captain Katie Holtham, who last season skippered England to the UEFA Women’s U19 European Championship finals, will be leading from the front as the Academy attempt to kick-start their season by beating the Black Cats at home.

“We’re beginning to find our feet now after a disappointing start to the season,” said Holtham. “We brought some quality players into the club during the summer and looked very sharp in pre-season, but then we got badly hit by injuries.

“We’ve had a number of key players missing and without doubt that’s affected us, but I’m not making excuses. We should have got our first win by now and the longer we go without one, the more the pressure builds on us.

“That pressure will certainly be there on Sunday, but we’ve not been playing badly of late and we won’t be short of confidence going into the game, even though we lost to Sunderland at their place a few weeks ago.

“We took the lead then kept pushing forward, but we got hit on the break several times and ended up losing 3-1. We’ve learned lessons from that game though, and I feel we can get our revenge on Sunday.”

Holtham has been following this week’s first round qualifying tournament for next year’s U19 Euro finals and is delighted to see the progress that England, with a lot of players she captained last season still involved, have been making.

“The U19’s have got some great players in the squad and I think they’ll be good enough to get to the finals again. It was a great honour to be captain last year, in fact leading the side at the Euro finals in Hungary was the highlight of my career so far.

“Hopefully I can now progress through the U21 team into the senior squad and that’s certainly my aim, but in the meanwhile I’d like to wish this season’s Under-19’s all the best in their European Championship matches.

“A couple of girls in the squad, Steph Houghton and Jill Scott, play for Sunderland so I should be facing them on Sunday – when I won’t be wishing them so well! We want that first win and once we’ve got it, I’m sure we’ll push on to have a good season.” 

FA Nationwide Women’s Premier League
Fixtures for 2 October 2005
Birmingham City v Doncaster Rovers Belles
Bristol Academy v Sunderland
Leeds United v Charlton Athletic

Premier League Cup Round One
Arsenal v Wolves