Sunderland began their pre-season campaign with a 4-0 win over South Shields
Sunderland ran out comfortable winners on their first pre-season outing at South Shields.
Wilson Isidor and Romaine Mundle put the Black Cats 2-0 up at the break, before Milan Aleksic added a third shortly after the interval. Ahmed Abdullahi scored with almost the last kick of the game to complete the win after a strong save from Simon Moore preserved the clean sheet.
Sunderland started confidently and indeed found themselves in the lead within a minute, winning the ball back in midfield and allowing Enzo Le Fee to break into the opposition half. From there he reprised a familiar trick from last season, an inch-perfect through ball finding Wilson Isidor breaking into the opposition box. He picked his spot perfectly, firing across the goalkeeper into the far corner.
South Shields to their credit rallied well, showing a comfort in possession and a willingness to get the ball down and play. They had some promising moments particularly through former Sunderland youngster Caden Kelly, but the Black Cats forged a big chance when Niall Huggins spun away from an aggressive press. He fired a long ball into the feet of Le Fee who drove into the box, just unable to dink his effort over the goalkeeper and in.
Chances were then few and far between as the half developed, South Shields holding their own though Sunderland began to increasingly dominate possession towards their break. They doubled their advantage with a lightning counter attack, which started when they initially lost possession and South Shields thought they might have an opening. Habib Diarra and Romaine Mundle combined to win the ball back and the former found the latter with a precise through ball. Mundle let the ball run across hium and similar to Isidor, fired across the goalkeeper and into the far corner.
South Shields almost got a goal back just before half time when Kelly cracked a free kick off the post, Sunderland fortunate to see it bounce clear.
Le Bris changed his team in its entirety at the interval, and in the opening exchanges of the second half the Black Cats looked like they could really make their Premier League quality play. They went close early on when Dan Neil found Ahmed Abdullahi on the edge of the box, the striker doing well to turn and shoot and draw an excellent save from the goalkeeper. More good work from Abdullahi moments later saw him found Aleksic in the box, but under pressure the midfielder could only turn over the bar. He shortly made amends for that miss, firing into the bottom corner after Patrick Roberts cut infield and found him with an inch-perfect pass.
For a spell it looked as if Sunderland would run away with the game, but to their credit South Shields dug in and came close to getting on the scoresheet late on. The hosts came close to scoring when a cross was turned just wide from close range at the back post, before Simon Moore raced off his line to make an excellent block when it seemed certain that a Shields trialist would score.
Sunderland always looked a threat and were a touch unlucky not to extend their advantage further at times, Mayenda denied by a strong save when he cut infield from the right and Abdullahi denied on a couple of occasions by last-ditch defending when we worked space in the box. Abdullahi got his reward when Mayenda found him with a nice through ball, the striker showing good composure to round the goalkeeper and convert.
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