The 21-year-old midfielder, who began her career at Chelsea, joined Zoe Johnson’s side from Everton ahead of last year’s FA Women’s Super League Spring Series and has been a regular fixture at Dronfield this term, making 11 appearances so far, scoring once.
Before that, however, the former England U-20 international had opted to step away from the game entirely but Dear is in full flight once again and believes she is thriving in FA WSL 2.
“Things had knocked my confidence and there was stuff in my personal life as well, which was tough for me, so I stopped playing for about four months,” said the Sheffield player.
“I had to take time out to realise what I wanted to do and speaking to Zoe (Johnson); she brought my love for football back again.
“I love playing for Sheffield at the moment and I’ve enjoyed the season so far, and I just want to keep going and finish the season off as a high.
“I wanted to get games under my belt and show what kind of player I am. I don’t think I’ve shown my potential in the last couple of years.
“I think I can reach my potential at Sheffield and I want to keep proving myself.”
In April, Johnson’s side have racked up two healthy wins on the spin, defeating Watford 4-2 before beating Tottenham Hotspur 4-2 last weekend.
Sunday’s clash with Oxford United kicks off a run of three successive home fixtures and Dear says that she and her teammate spy an opportunity to construct a run of form that will fire them up into the top half of the table.
She said: “I think it’s a massive positive for us, being at home. Our form’s been a lot better at home.
“We played Oxford in the first game of the season and it was a close game then but little mistakes let us down and we weren’t clinical enough in front of goal.
“Momentum is going to be key for us in the next few weeks. We’ve scored eight goals in the past two games, so we want to take the positives from those two games into Sunday, and hopefully, we can get another positive result.
“I think this end part of the season is going to be vital for us to show what we’re about – I think we’ve done that in spells during games but we haven’t shown our full potential.
“I think we’re now showing the desire and how we work together as a team. We just need to put all of the little things together into our performance over the next three games coming up.”
By Sportsbeat
This weekend’s fixtures:
Saturday 28 April
FA WSL 2
Doncaster Rovers Belles v London Bees (Doncaster Rovers FC, 6.30)
Sunday 29 April 2018
FA WSL 1
Sunderland v Reading (South Shields FC, 12:00)
Birmingham City v Arsenal (Solihull Moors FC, 2pm)
Liverpool v Everton (Tranmere Rovers FC, 2pm)
FA WSL 2
Tottenham Hotspur v Durham (Cheshunt FC, 1pm)
Brighton & Hove Albion v Aston Villa (Culver Road, 2pm)
Sheffield FC v Oxford United (Sheffield FC, 2pm)
Watford v Millwall Lionesses (Kings Langley FC, 3pm)
To buy tickets to an FA Women’s Super League match near you click here: www.fawsl.com/tickets
