Championship leaders Sunderland are the biggest surprise. Last season, they finished in 11th place – a position that would mean relegation in the 2023/24 campaign.
Now, they stand on the cusp of promotion to the WSL. It is not the first time they have played in England’s highest women’s league either, having twice had licences rejected for upper leagues as the structure changed over the years.
Players like Lucy Bronze, Jill Scott and Beth Mead all came through the ranks at the club, showing their pedigree and history in the game.
But this season’s promotion push has arguably come out of the blue, and it is perhaps the struggle of the 2022/23 campaign that has spurred Sunderland on.
Westrup said: “It’s probably unexpected. At the beginning of the season, a lot of people anticipated us to be in a relegation battle instead of a promotion battle.
“A lot of teams strengthened and retained a lot of people and we had a fair bit of turnover, so we’re probably achieving above and beyond what people would have expected.
“But once we got into our rhythm in the season, we thought ‘we can expect that from this group’. It’s not a one-off game we’re winning. As we’ve grown into this, it’s provided more belief in the team. Hopefully we’re hitting form at the right time and putting together better football performances than we did at the beginning of the season.
“But it’s equally as important to win those games when you’re not putting in a great performance per se. Now, we expect it from ourselves and you’ve tasted a bit of being so close that you kind of want to just see it out.
“Coming off the back of last season, it’s hard to have a losing season. To come in every week and feel like, on the weekend, it was a 1-0 defeat in the 87 minute and especially when you could potentially be relegated, it does start to get to you.
“We know how we don’t want to feel. It almost makes you put that much more effort into working to scratch and claw out everything to not be in the same position.
“Everyone here wants to win. The players that we have brought in not only brought quality on the pitch, but they brought positivity. Some of them came from winning teams so they have definitely helped the mentality.”
Along with Charlton and Birmingham, Sunderland have also conceded the fewest goals this season – just 14 in 18 games.
“If the other team can’t score the least you’re getting is a draw and a point out of the game. As a defender as well, that’s very important.
“Claudia [Moan] is a tremendous shot stopper and she’s come on leaps and bounds in terms of in possession. I feel like last season, she didn’t get to develop that because we were rarely in possession of the ball, we were very defensive.
“It’s about not allowing teams to even get their shots on her, that then increases her ability to save the hopefully few shots that she does get. That has contributed a lot.
“We’ve also found more resilience and grit. It is a testament to every player, not just Claudia or the backline and we’re very much a team that presses from the front. We don’t say to the strikers ‘you just hang out at the top of the pitch and wait for us to get you the ball’, they also put a huge shift in to make it easier for everyone behind them to win the ball back so it’s been night and day from last season.”
It’s definitely one of the most competitive leagues I’ve played in…. As nice as it would be to have a nine-point difference and be relaxed going into the last games, that’s not fun for anyone else. As stressful as it might be for the people involved – trying not to get relegated or trying to get promoted – that’s football and it’s crunch time. It shows what your team is made of when your back is against the wall.
Despite the huge improvements, heading into the final few games of the season, very little is changing for Sunderland.
“We are not putting any added pressure on ourselves,” Westrup added. “Everyone can see the table, everyone knows it’s crunch time, but it is brutal.
“Everyone is playing for something. The good majority of the teams we’re facing are either trying to avoid relegation or trying to get promoted. It’s a completely different motivator, but at the end of the day, it makes it such a hard game.
“You just have to look at the next team in front of you. Once you box that off, then you can enjoy it for that day, then you go on to the next thing.
“We’ve not tried to do much different or say ‘this is so important’. We’ll try not to use language that puts more pressure on people because you have some people who have been in teams that have been successful. You have people that haven’t you, have young players, you have experienced players and not everyone handles pressure in the same way, so as much as we can, we keep it like a normal week.
“And you don’t have to tell the team how important the games are, so I don’t think saying anything like that in any of our analysis sessions or pre-match talks does anyone any benefit.
“It’s not like now we’re into the final few games, we’re going to do more or less and change everything. We’re trying to stay the exact same, see out the season and keep that routine.”