DEFENDER Paige Peake believes Saints put in one of their "best 20 minutes of football" this season during their 1-0 win at Sheffield United in the Women's Championship.

The visitors took the lead at Bramall Lane when Katie Wilkinson tucked away Sophia Pharoah's cross - while Lucia Kendall also had a goal ruled out for offside in the early stages.

After the fast start, Saints FC Women then had to show a more gritty performance in the second half to hold on to their advantage.

Speaking to club media, Peake insisted that making strong starts to matches is something that the side have wanted to improve on.

She said: "We played some really good football and then we showed an ugly side to us and battled it out. The main thing was we came away with three points.

"We’ve started saying we need to come out a bit stronger which I think we definitely showed.

"It is probably one of the best 20 minutes of football we’ve played all season. We just need to work on continuing that further into the game now."

Marieanne Spacey-Cale's side, who are up to third in the table, now face a difficult run of games where they come up against three of their promotion rivals in the space of five weeks.

Crystal Palace are up next on Sunday, February 4 before they host Manchester United in the FA Cup a week later.

There are then matches against fourth-placed Birmingham City and second-placed Sunderland to follow - in what looks like a crucial period of the season.

The 21 year old added: "In the first half of the season, we were very inconsistent in some games where we would win and then we would lose.

"Our focus for (2024) was to be more consistent with that momentum and we have shown that so far and hopefully that can carry on."