The on-loan teenager has been left frustrated for the majority of her time on Tyneside, having picked up an injury after playing just over 30 minutes on her debut away to Sheffield United Women.

Pritchard came on for the final 23 minutes last weekend, and afterwards she admitted her excitement at finally pulling on a black and white shirt.

"It felt so good to finally get out on the Kingston Park pitch. It was a really difficult setback for me to take, picking up an injury so soon after joining the club," she explained.

"I was so excited to pull on the shirt and make my home debut, because it's been a difficult period for me.

"Despite the injury, I've enjoyed my time being back in the North East, and I have to say, since I joined the club, all of the girls, staff and coaches have made life easy."

United's number 14 was brought up in a household of Newcastle fans, and had her family in attendance to witness her home debut in black and white.

There were 98 days between Pritchard's first and second appearances for the club, with the winger telling newcastleunited.com how the mental side of rehabilitation was tough for her.

"I'd say it was probably tougher mentally than physically during my injury, but this past week has been amazing getting to be part of full training sessions," she said.

"I felt like I was training well the past week, so I did have a little bit of a feeling I could be in the squad, and that had me excited all week.

"It feels as though I've been smiling non-stop for a week, just at the thought of finally getting my boots back on, and to do it with all of my family in the stands and seeing how happy they were was an amazing feeling."

With the game finely poised at 1-1 deep into the second-half, Becky Langley was looking for ways to pick up all three points, so turning to Pritchard will have been no surprise to anyone.

The England youth international couldn't hide her excitement when called back from her warm-up to take to the pitch for the first time since January.

"When Becky called me back and told me I was going on, I was so happy," she added.

"Being able to get some minutes in front of over 4,000 of our fans was something great and to experience their support on the pitch was a big moment for me."