When they won the league and were then promoted via the play-offs last season, Watford Women did so playing an attractive style of football that was largely opposite to the teams they faced.

They played out from the back, were happy to retain possession and be patient, and they rarely launched the ball long.

But can that approach be continued now they’re making the step up to the Championship?

Midfielder Dre Georgiou joined the club midway through the 22/23 season having previously played in the Championship – and she believes not only can Watford continue to play attractive football, but they can prosper doing it.

“I was questioning it in pre-season because it’s always harder when you have a lot of new players coming in,” she said.

“But it’s unbelievable how well we have actually gelled, and in our pre-season games we have played brilliant football.

“So if I compare it to last season, I think we are playing even better football now. Our style of play is passing the ball around, getting the ball around the team and moving it around the pitch.

“We’ve never been a team that forces it and hits it long, and I think it’ll be a surprise even in this league with the way we play the game because not many teams do the same."

The former Coventry United and Crystal Palace player does admit there will be a huge increase in the standard of the teams Watford face now they have been promoted.

“There’s a bigger gap than people think,” she said.

“The quality in the league we have just come out of has got better: we won the league on goal difference and then we had to go through a play-off to get promoted.

“But the Championship has international players and every team has real quality.

“In the past you might have been able to pick out a team you thought would go down, but this season you can’t because every team has quality. Plus two teams get relegated this season.

“The quality of players in the Championship is increasing, better young players are coming through and I’m just happy that we are going to be part of that.”

Part of the growing quality in the Championship is because more overseas players are arriving in the WSL, and that in turn means players are taking a step down to continue their careers.

“There are loads of WSL players from last season who have signed for Championship clubs.

“You can see the quality getting better, and we also saw that last season because a lot of National League teams had Championship players.

“It’s good for the game, because there are very good players in more leagues and that increases the standard of the football.”

Georgiou – who was Player of the Match in May’s Play-Off Final – joined Watford in March 2022 and was relegated at the end of that season. She then extended her stay, but did so not because she was content playing National League football.

“I didn’t see it as dropping down a league. I knew Damon was going to get us promoted, so whether we’d be going up wasn’t a question in my head,” she said.

“Every game for me was a big one because I knew we wanted to be back in the Championship and we had the players to do that.

“Our team last season had loads of players who had played in the Championship. Where we are now is where we deserve to be.”