Sunderland v Hartlepool United - Monday 29th July - Academy of Light (Behind closed doors) please log in to view this image Team news: Aiden McGeady is poised to make his first Sunderland appearance of the summer in the behind-closed-doors friendly against Hartlepool United on Monday. The winger was not involved in the side beaten 1-0 by Heerenveen at the Stadium of Light, one of several forward players not involved. Monday’s game against Pools is the final chance for the squad to gain some valuable minutes ahead of the League One opener against Oxford United on Saturday. Jack Ross hopes Chris Maguire will also be involved but Duncan Watmore, who missed the Heerenveen friendly with a tight thigh is doubtful. Charlie Wyke has an ankle injury which Ross says will keep him out of the Pools game. Jack Ross: “Chris hopefully will play Monday. Aiden, we are hoping to start building up his pre-season by playing that game. Duncan, I’m not sure. Charlie, no." “We have got ones who are a little bit behind but we will see how they are over the course of the week. With Charlie it is his ankle, it has troubled him in pre-season but he has done a lot in pre-season. We need to get to the bottom of it. Not sure how long yet, I don’t think a significant period of time." “Duncan had a tight thigh. I hoped he would be able to play, he has been in good form. It just tightened up a little bit and didn’t want to take chances. Doubtful he will play Monday but hopefully he might train as the week goes on.” Anybody know what time they kick-off?
Liverpool didn't win any of their games in preseason and got beat by Napoli 3-0 tonight, they're not a bad side are they? Ross seems happy enough with how we've done have to wait and see.
Stop it with thinking positive. Everyone’s negative cos he said so! 6500 on a Saturday night game friendly apparently means no one is excited. I know loads who are. But we have our negative doom mongers. Few seasons ago we got bumper 5-1 by Celtic and we were a premier league team. We’re now 2 divisions below that and only a worldly beat us against a Dutch top flight side. I’ll take some large positives from that thank you
The people I know, in real life, are already messaging about Ipswich arrangements etc. Message boards are notoriously pessimistic especially as any sign of enthusiasm is put down as 'rose tinted drivel from gullible dopes' . I love the start of the season as we're unbeaten and anything's possible ... ... Haway the Lads!!!
Too many people are placing too much emphasis on the pre season matches and getting overly concerned because we haven't scored. Pre season is all about fitness, experimenting with tactics, formation and team bonding. The players mindset will be completely different when the league matches start, so I'm not concerned in the slightest about pre season results.
Despite neither team getting much on goal, it was an extremely well played match. So well played, I watched it twice, because it seemed well above league 1 standard. Attacking sequences of 10 - 20 passes was the norm for both sides. And neither side spent any time just passing the ball around for the sake of possession. It was a constant alternation of build and attack. Both teams kept their shape defensively and tightened up beyond the 18's.
Pre season has never meant anything anyways has it? We’ve had years when we’ve been terrible and years unbeaten and never has it affected season. I didn’t go at the weekend, as it’s pre season and I don’t care, but I’m ****ing buzzing that we are in kick off week, can’t wait for it.
I used to (in my younger, pre kids days) travel the globe watching Safc in friendlies. Any trip to watch friendlies was just that. Football meant nothing. It was fun. Now all of a sudden, people put emphasis on the importance of friendlies. Guess Liverpool will be fighting relegation this season then!!!
I think we’ll do ok but JR could be hounded our by Xmas if we are not at least in a play-off position and still playing boring football. Bart
I agree with this. In a sense it would be very sad, given the situation we've found ourselves in. On the flip side though a club of our stature should not be accepting mediocrity in League One.
I’m inclined to agree. I’m positive for the season, but we are short up front it appears, but should have enough to be aiming to win the league, not just go up. There’s always going to be questions about JR when despite the players and such we play such one dimensional and flat football at times. We always look best when we press on. That’s what we need to be doing. We’ve players in there now that can handle the physical aspect. You can have your concerns and still be buzzing for the season and positive as a whole of course, I’d say most I’ve spoken to are in that area.
Sad isn't it how little time you get as a manager. Ross was, by some of our fans, linked with United last Christmas because of how good a job he'd done with us. 6 months later and he's got until Christmas before getting "hounded out" by those same fans! Agree we look short up front - but had we just signed Will Grigg this week and no-one had seen him play for us last season, most of us probably wouldn't say that! He can't be prolific at this level for everyone except us surely? We seem to have stopped fairly regular and prolific third division players from scoring? And it's not like they don't get chances as they missed some sitters last season!!
I genuinely think he will come good. Again, I think we’ve signed the right player but play the wrong system for it, especially when we revert to hoof ball. The quality of McGeady and Watmore is clear, looking forward to seeing Dobson, and Mac the RB looks an excellent addition in an area where we’ve been making do for a while. The only side that looks markedly stronger than last season is Peterborough, and they were a distance back from us even accounting for the late collapse we had. I think 4/1 on us is a great price and a lot of people will be taking that bet.
I've had £50 on us after seeing your post. That 'missing' £50 won't stop me going to a game but would cover a lot if it comes off. There's enough in that squad to finish top and lessons have been learned by everyone I'm sure. First lesson is not to allow the opposition to referee the games.
ATM I want to see how we get on first 10 games (although I am still waiting for my season card to come through), we need to have a back 3 or 4 that does not concede easily, that looks confident and to create more chances for the strikers, Grigg to my eye looks good but very rarely does he get a ball he can do anything with. Also TBH we have not looked good in the friendlies... lets see saturday
Apparently mines turned up today mate. I’m 37 and they still go to my Mams in Seaburn, never updated it.
Ive just returned home from Hol so im out of touch in whats been going on in our pre season games. Can somebody enlighten me to the positives and negatives please? Im hearing Grigg has continued where he left off by contributing nothing which is a worry.
Positives - defence looks solid Negatives - attack looks dog ****. That’s about it. New signings all look solid and ready to make an impact, there still appears a lack of fluidity and defined plan on what we do with the ball.
