Newcastle women's midfielder Katie Bradley sat down for an exclusive interview with Chronicle Live ahead of the Tyne-Wear derby vs Sunderland

On the face of it, swapping a season in the Women's Super League (WSL) after helping Charlton Athletic win promotion last season for another campaign in WSL 2 would be undesirable.

But when Newcastle United came calling over the summer, Katie Bradley had no hesitation to make just that decision and it speaks volumes for the ambitions the club have for the women's team.

Bradley played a key role in helping the Addicks win promotion via the play-offs last season and now on Tyneside she has featured in all of Newcastle's games this season as they have raced to the top of the table.

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United have a perfect record of five wins from five games in the league and Bradley feels that the short term pain of foregoing this season in the top flight will pay off in the long term.

"I'm loving it," Bradley exclusively told Chronicle Live at their Cochrane Park training base. "All the girls are great. The standard of football is good and I enjoy living in Newcastle. There's a lot going on, lots of places to go and visit, so it's nice and I'm enjoying it.

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"I feel like [joining] Newcastle [you] don't need much convincing. Obviously it's a huge club worldwide and the location as well. It's nice to be back up north. I think ultimately just the playing style was something that really attracted me to it. Playing a little bit higher up and showing more of my attacking capabilities, which I know I can give a lot more than what I have done in previous seasons.

"I think [the club's] long-term goals. I know Newcastle are more than capable of going up this year and that is our main goal. Obviously focusing one game at a time, but I think if we do get promoted, we will stay up there. I think we've got the capabilities to do that and the infrastructure. But yeah, I think it's a very attractive club, attractive playing style and it's just something that I wanted to be a part of."

Part of the attraction is the club's stated ambition to consistently be competing for the WSL title by 2030, as a branch of David Hopkinson's Project 2030 vision for the club.

The first part of that journey is winning promotion into the top flight this season and Bradley feels Newcastle have built a squad ready to deliver on that vision.

"I think it's just huge," Bradley replied when asked about that 2030 target. "Something that we say quite a lot in training is striving for that perfection. You're never going to get perfection, but getting as close to it as you can is like you're going to get excellence.

"That's something that we try and do day in, day out. Like I said, it's just a huge club. It goes on such high levels. It's something that I feel like everyone would want to be a part of.

"It's been a perfect start [this season]. But like I said, we just take one game at a time. No complacency. There's so many competition for places. Everyone's pushing each other each day in training, just taking each game at a time and we're going to treat it this weekend like we do with every game."

Except this weekend's game isn't like any other. Newcastle host Sunderland at the Gateshead International Stadium on Sunday in their second League Cup game.

While it may not be a league fixture, Newcastle sit atop of the WSL 2 standings after five games and their fierce rivals currently sit in second place, two points behind the Magpies and it is a chance for each team to land a significant psychological blow on their counterparts.

Bradley's career in the professional game has seen her take in a spell with Blackburn Rovers, as well as Charlton, having come through the youth system of both Manchester United and Manchester City before taking in college football in the USA with the UCF (University of Central Florida) Knights.

But the 'chaos' of a Tyne-Wear derby will be a new experience for her, and a lot of her team-mates, no matter if they insist they are treating it like any other fixture.

"I think it's a game that everyone wants to play in," Bradley admitted. "Obviously, I've heard the atmosphere is just chaos. There is all the outside noise. It's going to be a great game but it is just another game at the end of the day. It is something that I'm really looking forward to and hopefully we get a lot of fans there and they bring the noise."

And that is where the importance of manager Tanya Oxtoby's 'calm presence' takes on greater precedence in a game littered with high emotions.

Oxtoby, who joined the club midway through last season, has managed to mould a really talented squad together with a number of summer recruits mixing with the talent already on Tyneside.

Bradley, of course, was one of those summer arrivals and the hope now for the 24-year-old is that she banks a second successive promotion on her CV.

"Yeah, it's been great," Bradley said of working with Oxtoby. "I think she's really relaxed and we all know the standard that we have to be at and if we ever slip slightly below that standard, she's the first to say it. But she also has a really calm presence about it as well. So we're all playing with ease and in flow state, which I think is really important.

"We've just got threats from everywhere on the pitch. So we've not just got one person scoring. If one team puts a marker down on someone and tries to stop them, we've got threats from elsewhere. And the depth that we have is something that I probably haven't experienced as much before. And that competition for places, it just pushes everyone to always be on that edge, which I think is really good at striving for excellence.

"Ultimately we want to get promoted and I've got experience doing that with Charlton last year, which hopefully I can help if we get into some rocky patches, which is bound to happen with the season being so long."