Kelly 'thrilled' to make long-awaited return at Bramall Lane | OneFootball

But despite the result, the popular 29-year-old still had reason to smile after being handed her first minutes in 17 weeks.

United's number eight went off injured in the 3-1 Tyne-Wear derby victory over Sunderland Women back in November, but resumed full training during the recent international break and came back into the team at Bramall Lane.

Kelly, who is one of seven players to have come up from tier three with Newcastle, has had a troublesome time with injuries over the past 12 months, so a start at an important time of the season was a boost for her and manager Tanya Oxtoby.

"I'm thrilled to be back in the starting line-up," Kelly said after her 64-minute cameo in Sheffield. "Coming into the game, I think I voiced my nerves to all the girls because it had been so long since I last played.

"I've been doing all the hard work behind the scenes to get back into this position. It was nice of Tanya to trust me with the role of starting, and now I want to build on that.

"Having to work hard to get back fit and now starting again has only made me hungrier to get better and help the team in any way I can."

While Kelly was delighted to pull her boots on in a competitive fixture once again, it was tainted with a hint of disappointment.

After recording back-to-back wins prior to the international break, United were unable to take the opportunity to go level on points with Birmingham City Women in second place.

"Before the international break, we created some momentum with two wins and started moving up the table," she said.

"But we’re not happy with the performance. We knew the expectations going into the game that we wanted and needed the three points.

"It wasn't a good enough start from us. I don't think we started the game aggressively enough; we weren't on the front foot, and we didn't manage to put them under much pressure."

With two games coming up this week, both at the Gateshead International Stadium against Birmingham and Crystal Palace Women respectively, Kelly knows there's an opportunity to quickly get back to winning ways.

"We can't dwell on this result, no matter how frustrating it is, because we've got to focus on the next game and putting in a better performance," she added.

"We want to ensure that there are no more blips like this one, and hopefully we can put things right with two big games coming up."