Barton is Albion’s longest-serving player after leaving Chelsea back in 2011, and she admits that she still has to pinch herself at recalling her journey with the club.
She said, “We used to train down the road on the astroturf until 10.30 at night, and it’s massive to see where the club is now.
“When we moved from there to the training ground at Lancing, that was a massive progression for us as well. Now we’re full-time professional athletes, and it’s great to be a part of how far the club has come.
“We all feel so lucky to be doing our dream job. Since I moved here from Chelsea, there has never been a moment where I’ve wanted to leave. I’ve loved every minute at this club and want to keep progressing as a player.”
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The 27-year-old then looked ahead to Sunday’s home game against Liverpool at The People's Pension Stadium, and is paying little attention to their position at the bottom of the table.
“It’s a competitive league and you’re surprised by whoever is at the bottom, because there are a lot of good teams in this league," she continued.
“They’ve had a bit of a rocky start, but they recently managed to draw against Chelsea and West Ham. If you look at their couple of results before that, they only got beaten 1-0 by the likes of Manchester City and Arsenal.
“We know they’re a defensively strong team. We’re both going to be fighting for three points this weekend and it will be a massive game.”
The full-back highlighted where Albion can look to improve in the second half of the season, and reiterated the need to take more of their chances.
“We need to be much more clinical. We lost 5-0 to Man City, but we had a lot of possession in that game, and if we can be a bit more clinical in front of goal then we will progress a lot higher up the table.
“It’s been similar to last season in a way, because there are games which we could’ve taken a lot more from, and that comes with consistency. If we put those chances away, then we get the points we deserve.
“Our last result was a bit disappointing, but we’ve had some time off to refuel and we’re all ready to go.”
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