Sheffield United's reprieve shows women's game still has much to do as Blades set out to prove point

Sheffield United Women have been beneficiaries of some of the bad stuff, and now hope to cash in on the good news when their Women's Super League 2 season starts against Sunderland at Bramall Lane on Friday (6pm).

Yorkshire's only representatives in English football's top two tiers are lucky to still be there after finishing bottom of the division last season. They were reprieved when Blackburn Rovers were not prepared to provide the funding to meet the division's raised standards – which now includes minimum wages.

It is the second season running that being tied to a men's club – as all but London City Lionesses are in WSL1 – has caused problems, with Reading dropping out of the Championship (as it was then) in 2024.

With top-tier gates down last season, it shows the women's game has much still to do to grow its roots.

Already under a dark after the death of then-player Maddy Cusack in September 2023, the Blades also felt the knock-on effect of their male counterparts' struggles this time last year but, says Leanne Cowan, they have emerged from that now.

"What happened at Blackburn was terrible and it's the second season in a row after Reading having to withdraw the season before," says the right-back, who joined from London City Lionesses last summer. "Women's football's growing and it's fantastic, and England have won the Euros again but at club level we need better infrastructure, funding and sponsorships because it shouldn't be happening two years in a row and it's not good enough.

"You look at all the girls from the Blackburn team who have had to move and find a new team and all the girls in their academy that now don't have a route to WSL2 football."

Last season started and ended in uncertainty for the Blades, but a change of ownership from Saudi prince Abdullah bin Mosaad Al Saud to American-based COH Sports helped shift the mood.

"At the start of last season the men had been relegated from the Premier League so in terms of ownership and budget, it wasn't very clear," admits Cowan.

"Pre-season was pushed back and we were not able to hold contract talks because of not having a budget.

"Since the change in ownership (at Christmas) there's been a real positive vibe, they've supported us a lot and there are things we have access to this season that we didn't have before. It's just little things that help us to be more professional, whether that's food before and after training, better equipment for training, more staff and more eyes on the things we want to focus on."

Sarina Wiegman's Lionesses winning major silverware abroad – something their male counterparts are yet to do – has been a shot in the arm at all levels.

"We were in pre-season and we'd played a friendly so we watched the final on the coach coming back together," recalls Cowan. "You see people do so well and some of those players we've been fortunate enough to play against in their younger years.

"I was lucky enough to play against Ella Toone. As peers you respect them so much because you know how good they are and it really makes you want to kick on with your own football.

"It will definitely help from a visibility point of view. A lot of people were talking about women's football over the summer in a positive way.

"I definitely think it helps radiate positive energy – people who might not necessarily watch women's football might have watched it and thought, 'Do you know what? I might just get down to a game.'"

And after the embarrassment of finishing bottom last season without the footballing punishment, there is a point for the Blades to prove.

"If you look at our results, we lost by one goal in a lot of them and they were sometimes just silly mistakes, us switching off, sometimes a bit of bad luck," argues Cowan.

"It gets disheartening when you're losing every week, then coming in to do analysis. It's quite draining when everyone's giving their all every game and it still wasn't enough.

"There's no elephant in the room – we all know what happened last season and we don't want a repeat of that. We just want to play well for our fans who stuck with us last season, and the football club.

"More than anything we just want to make sure we work as hard as we can, tidy up on things that weren't great last season and carry on doing things we were good at because we definitely don't want to be in and around the bottom of the table.

"Maybe we've a bit of a point to prove – we were fortunate to stay in the league after everything that happened. We've just got to get back to being a tough team to play against, and make Bramall Lane a bit of a fortress and be a proper Sheffield United team."