‘Sunderland are always tough to play’ – Birmingham City’s McGowan looks ahead to opener | OneFootball

Birmingham City attacker Tegan McGowan is expecting a tough challenge from Sunderland on the opening day of the new Barclays Women’s Championship season.

The Blues play host to The Lady Black Cats at St. Andrew’s @ Knighthead Park on Sunday afternoon. The game sees two of last season’s promotion challengers go head-to head.

Sunderland were arguably the surprise package in the Barclays Women’s Championship last season with Mel Reay’s side keeping their unexpected promotion push going until the final few games. Birmingham City performed well against the Wearsiders last season, taking four points from their two league games. The Blues may go into this weekend’s meeting as favourites but attacker McGowan says that Sunderland can never be taken lightly.

“There’s always so much hype around the first game,” McGowan said when speaking in a Barclays Women’s Championship media event. “People assume that teams that have done well in the past should do well [again] but that depends on what happens on the day.

“It’s going to be a tough game. Sunderland are always tough to play against, they’re physical and they’re strong. We have to rise to the challenge but also focus on us.”

Birmingham City are one of a whole host of clubs that could push for promotion this year. McGowan isn’t focusing too much on promotion rivals or pole position at this stage, she’s only concentrating on what happens on the pitch.

She said “We can’t look at the competition too much. When we start the season, the football will speak for itself. I just focus on Birmingham, I don’t look at anyone else.”

A four-game winless run at the start of last season played a big part in derailing the Blues’ promotion hopes. McGowan said that talk of last season’s slow start hasn’t entered the dressing room during this year’s pre-season programme.

She said “Last year was a completely different manager and a bit of a different squad, so I don’t think that’s been brought into our dressing room how they started last year.”

On a personal level, McGowan is set to kick-off her third season playing in the Barclays Women’s Championship and she says that the product on the pitch is improving year-on-year.

“I moved into the Championship two seasons ago after leaving Chelsea and even when I’ve been watching on from the sidelines [during my injury], the football has got so much better than when I first joined [the league],” she said.

“It’s so good to see the growth of the Championship, it’s exciting.”

Birmingham City’s Barclays Women’s Championship fixture against Sunderland kicks-off at 2pm on Sunday afternoon. Tickets remain on-sale and can be purchased by clicking here.