Tori Williams urged her Sunderland side to pick up their performance at the Academy Stadium against ‘on-fire’ Manchester City in FA Women’s Super League 1 tomorrow.

The Lady Black Cats suffered at the hands of a flying Arsenal side at the Hetton Centre, losing 4-0 as former Sunderland star Jordan Nobbs stole the show.

Sunderland sit just one point ahead of eighth-placed Reading, having played three more games, but Williams insists morale is still high.

Despite a 2-0 home loss to City earlier in the season, she feels they must be positive against the league leaders, who include Wearsiders and England internationals Jill Scott and Steph Houghton in their side.

“Results against City haven’t been bad, but they have strengthened and they looked on fire against Notts County but we can only play the team in front of us,” she said.

“We lost to City 2-0 earlier in the season, but generally we don’t do too bad – we have had a good week’s training.

“Although results haven’t been going our way, the mood in the camp has not been too bad – we tend to move on quickly, but I would say the team is still very together.

“The onus is on putting in a good performance, we haven’t been coming off the field happy with how we have played – we have only started going once we’re out of the game.

“We just want to kick on early and not let them pin us back

“After Sunday we will have played all of the title contenders twice, so we’re going into a run of games after that where we can really push on.”

League-leaders City, meanwhile, laid down an emphatic marker of their title credentials, easing to a 5-1 win at Notts County.

Dutch international Tessel Middag – a recent acquisition from Eredivisie Women’s outfit Ajax – believes City’s ‘family’ atmosphere will help them as the title-race intensifies.

Middag herself will have special visitors at the Academy Stadium, with her parents due to visit from the Netherlands.

And the 36-cap international hopes she can mark the occasion with some trademark City attacking football.

“We just want to play our brand of football and hopefully we can get the win. We try to take things a game at a time, we have trained well and the coach has given us lots of information,” she said.

“It is very special, I am really looking forward to their visit. It is really special to be able to play abroad and having your parents in the stands makes that even better. Hopefully I can do well for them.

“At the club everyone is really kind and it is a great combination of professionalism and kindness, it is just like family.

“It sounds like a cliché, but it really feels like that, but all the players and staff are on the same page.

“We have a website where we can watch all the games, I have done my research and am really looking forward to playing at home – my parents are coming to watch, which is great for me.”

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