As another international break draws close, it gives Chambers and her coaching team the time to reflect on a busy couple of weeks. It’s been quite the transformation from the Royals who, going into the must-win game against Birmingham City, sat just two points above the hosts in tenth. Almost two weeks on, the side have continued their unbeaten streak in the league, and sit in eighth.

“I think it’s been great – it has also been tough, in terms of having a lot of games within a short space of time with the size of the squad I’ve got available at the moment.

“But, I have to say fair play to the girls, they’ve embraced every challenge and what’s been nice is I’ve seen a different side of the players overall different games.

“You start with the Birmingham game, a dominant and controlling performance for the majority of it. The next game being West Ham, it’s completely different, as we went 2-0 down by half-time. But the resilience, fight, grit, determination, the girls showed to get that game back was fantastic.

“Then going in today [against Crystal Palace], another dominant performance in terms of keeping hold of the ball and dictating the pace of the game, but one where we had to be more ruthless and the girls know that I don’t need to tell them that.

“For us, we’re now four-game unbeaten, which is really important that we’ve built a little bit of momentum and a run we desperately needed after the first few weeks of the season. It’s built a really good and confident mood in camp, and the girls have all got around each other, and it’s just making sure now we can get that last one of the line before the international break.

“We know heading into Brighton, it’ll be tough, the third game of the week. Brighton are very organised, they always have been and it’s what strength they have gained especially being under Hope.

“Defensively they’re very well disciplined, which makes them a challenge to breakdown, but finding the right balance as they are quick at getting bodies forward.

“As well as looking at their pros and cons, we will of course focus on ourselves, we need to make sure going into that game now we really identify key phases of play on the training pitch.

“First and foremost, I want us to go out there and be the hardest working team and earn our rights.

“I think it’s also important to take the confidence of the last few weeks; the results, the goals we’ve scored, the different phases of play that we’ve experienced, and put it all together in a good all around performance in front of our home fans.

Chambers: “I’ve seen a different side to the players over the last few games!”