The Seagulls skipper, who got married in the summer, believes that having a year of experience in top-flight football will make a big difference heading into Saturday’s opening-day fixture against Bristol City at Ashton Gate.
She said, “Heading into the first season, a lot of us hadn’t played in this league before, but now we’re feeling a lot more confident.
“We’ve not set a target of where we want to finish, but there are games where we can perform better and get more points. We just need to take it game by game, and ultimately we want to push on and get more points than last season.
“We’re starting off with a game against Bristol and it’s very much unknown, in terms of the test they will provide us with. They’ve brought in new players, so you don’t know their system or their formation.
“It’s a bit of a cat-and-mouse situation in terms of not knowing what they’re going to do and vice-versa, but we’re confident of getting a result.
“There will always be some hurdles in the first game whether that’s through fitness or sharpness, but we’ll go there feeling confident after having a good pre-season.”
Bowman has been impressed with the club’s recruitment during the summer transfer window, and explained how the addition of goalkeeper Megan Walsh can make a huge difference.
“Having Megan in goal is unbelievable. She was outstanding last season and was probably the best keeper in the league in my opinion.
“She’s a great asset for us, but all the signings we’ve had are of a high quality.
“Some people may not be familiar with the players that we’ve bought in, but we get to train with them week in week out and they’re all assets to the team. I feel the club has done a great job in recruiting the players they have done, which is only a bonus for us.
“We’ve kept a lot of the players from last year too, which says a lot about our team because we’re quite close and we didn’t want to shuffle things up too much. The way we played in the second half of last season proved how close we are and despite having a lot of injuries, we still managed to pick up some big results.”
The Albion captain will turn 31 in October, and she said her passion for the game remains as strong as ever before highlighting the importance of maintaining a high level of fitness in the FA WSL.
“When you get older, things start to hurt a little bit more and for a bit longer. I’m still enjoying the game like I did when I was 20, although it’s harder and the game has got faster.
“We’ve got to get fitter and we’re training five or six days a week to cope with the demands of this league. You’ve got to push yourself harder, because if you stand still in this league people will just go past you. You have to keep pushing yourself no matter how old you are."