Sunday's match against Southampton will represent just over a month since Liam Gilbert and his assistant, Dan Vogue, assumed their roles at Reading FC Women.

During this time, they've been fully immersed in the club, overseen three Championship matches (remained unbeaten), and integrated up to 8 new players. To say it's been a whirlwind would be an understatement.

As the first international break of the season looms on the horizon, it signifies the end of a hectic few weeks marked by significant progress. Gilbert is eager to cap off this intense period with a victory on Sunday when Southampton comes to RG2.

“Whilst we’d obviously prefer to have a win on the board, there is definitely some consistencies which we’re seeing in our performances, which when you consider we’ve only been together for a month I think is good going.

“Had we have been leaking goals, then it would’ve been a massive problem, and would have perhaps taken a much longer time to fix.

“So the fact we’ve got these building blocks in place has been brilliant, and it’s now how do we go and add on this as a group. Either mentality, style of play and/or personnel wise.

“I think the biggest thing we need to add to our game is scoring goals, and perhaps a part of that is on me.

“From week one, I’ve tried to fight every fire going, work on every area on the pitch, covering every aspect on what we need to do on the ball and how we counter our opponents.

“And to be fair to us, I think what we’ve done in a month is incredible. Embedding a new philosophy is never quick, nor easy, so now overtime we layer on what foundations we’ve set, and we’ll slowly and gradually begin to see a more complete, well-rounded performance, and hopefully this time next week we’ll be sat here talking about the positives.

“In terms of this weekend, we saw many mad results, and I think that’ll be the story of the season. With Southampton, some may say it’s a dangerous or better time to play them following a loss, but I don’t think there is every an easy time to play any team in this division.

“We’ve watched the game back, and we have to be ready for an aggressive game as they come to prove a point after their last result.

“Also, with an international break to follow after this weekend, we want to go into this break on a real positive. I think that’ll be a really nice way to wrap up our first few weeks together, and a real example of how far we’ve come together.

“In that 10 day period, with players away, we can bring everyone together, review as a group what’s gone well, what we can improve, and be ready for the next set of games.

“But before any of that, it’s big one on Sunday, Southampton is our only focus and we want to win.”

Gilbert | “A win would be a good way to end this first chapter together.”