Manchester City Women's skipper Step Houghton eyes title challenge

Steph Houghton will proudly lead Manchester City into the Champions League this season but insists the club’s primary target this year is to win domestic silverware.

City, who missed out on the league title to Chelsea on the final day of last season, won the Continental Cup in their inaugural year in 2014 and were runners-up in the same competition last term.

Club captain Houghton was joined by England team-mate Toni Duggan to deliver season tickets and autographed shirts to two lucky families and the 27-year-old admits Manchester City want to challenge for the title again this year.

"The first two seasons have been fantastic for us and we want to build a team that plays attractive football," Houghton told Sky Sports News HQ.

"We need to get people to come and watch us and to hear that our season ticket sales have nearly doubled is very exciting, and it's special for me and Toni to be able to come and deliver some season tickets to two families here.

"As a club we're very excited to be playing against the best European teams and the best players in the Champions League but ultimately on a domestic level we need to compete and that's our focus this year - to compete for all three trophies.

"We were so close to winning the league last year and hopefully this time we can go that one step further."

City lost out to Chelsea in the race for last year's title despite a final-day 2-1 win over Notts County Ladies, who they face in their FA WSL 1 season opener on Wednesday.

"It was a big game against them at the end of last season which could have gone one way or the other," Houghton said.

"It will be a tough game again but there will be a lot of tough games in this league. We won't take them lightly and we have to respect them.

"As a team, they also have a lot of internationals in their squad but mainly we have to focus on ourselves and play the football that we have been playing on the fantastic run we have been on since the Women's World Cup."