Last time out Sunderland lost at Accrington and Hartlepool lost to Blackburn. The Black Cats have a short turn around to their last pre-season game as they travel the short distance down the A19 to face Hartlepool in a pre-season friendly. With one more friendly game to go until the season begins, Alex Neil's plans to give everyone equal playing time remain unaltered as he continues to treat the games as more of a physical test for his players. “On Monday, a lot of the other lads will get 90 minutes under their belt so when we get to the start of the season, they are all equally prepared so nobody can say ‘ I haven’t had enough minutes or a chance’. Everybody is pretty much across the board in a similar circumstance.” Carl Winchester is expected to be available after the defeat to Accrington with illness. Leon Dajaku is suffering with a thigh problem and will be assessed before the game. Alex Neil: "If you don't take opportunities and chances that come your way, you may pay the consequences, and we could have easily been four or five-nil up at half-time. "Even at the start of the second half, we had two great chances. One, Jack (Clarke) was given offside and I haven't seen it back, but he doesn't score, and another one he is clean through, cuts inside and the keeper makes another good save. We had more than enough in the game, we played really, really well for three-quarters of the match, but what happened then was that they started jumping in more aggressively, we got caught on the ball and as soon as we conceded the penalty, the game changed for 15 minutes at that point. "They did what they do which is to put the ball forward aggressively and we didn't win enough battles. I thought you saw the very best of us in the first half, if I'm honest, because some of our football was excellent, but then for that 15 minute spell in the second half I thought that you saw the worst of us." “Because of the lack of relevance to Coventry, I haven’t focused around how we are going to play and what the team looks like. Today if you look at it, I took Jack Clarke off and Lynden Gooch off because they played 90 minutes at Bradford. That was the plan before the game and that remained the plan irrespective of what happened in the game.” Expected Teams Sunderland AFC: Carney, Hume, Alese, Batth, Winchester, Matete, Sohna, Embleton, Diamond, Dajaku, Thompson. Subs: Richardson, Gooch, Wright, O'Nien, Neil, Roberts, Taylor, Kelly. Injured: Huggins Hartlepool United FC: Killip; Ogle, Lacey, Menayese, Paterson; Niang, Cooke; Grey, Crawford, Hastie; Umerah. Subs: Tumilty, Ferguson, Shelton, Featherstone, Hamilton, Harris, Letheran. My two pence: A game of two halves at Accrington, let’s hope that the sloppy finishing and those defensive errors are left on the training pitch. We move onto the final pre-season game with less than a week before the big kick-off. I’m not sure why we are playing so soon after the previous game. Given that, I’m half expecting us to put out a second-string team with a few more youngsters thrown in. My guess is a 3-1 win for the lads. Live Stream: Supporters who can't attend the match can live stream the game for £7.50. https://www.safc.com/news/team-news/live-video Ha’way the Lads
Is WHED still kicking about? Who will he be cheering on? 3-0 to the lads, Embleton first goal if he starts.
cheers again RTB... usually a canny game this one for a friendly, 'pools tend to have a good crowd in for it. again not to worried about results but injury free will do and a nice work out for the lads, hartlepool will be well up for this one so looking forward to an enjoyable kick around.
Thanks again RTB for setting the scene on this the last "fitness exercise" , in what has turned out to be a pre-season damp squib, nevertheless I am sure a seed change is on the way. OaU.
Not risking the starters for the opening match of the season by the looks of it. 0-1 with Embo on the scoresheet
