Four decent goals and a clean sheet at the other end
The boys got off to a flying start with a first-minute goal from Isidor, who was put in with a lovely slotted pass from Le Fee, and they continued to build from there to secure a comfortable 4-0 away win at the First Cloud Arena on Saturday afternoon.
The second goal by Mundle was very well taken (and other aspects of it, I will cover later), as were the slotted finish from Aleksic and the late strike by Abdullahi in the dying minutes.
To be honest, if it wasn’t for some decent saves by the sand-dancers keeper, it may well have been a few more goals for the lads, as we also missed a few pretty simple chances, such as the one Aleksic skied over the bar from close range around the 51st minute mark. He made up for that with a harder but better executed finish a few minutes later, though, so we will forgive him.
Though we came close to letting one in, with the shot onto the post just before half time being the closest the hosts came, to have so many decent goals and other chances and a clean sheet at our end was a great result for the squad and the fans at such an early point in our season.
South Shields v Sunderland - Pre Season Friendly - 1st Cloud Arena Photo by Owen Humphreys/PA Images via Getty Images
A sign of things to come?
The way we scored more than one of the goals against Shields made me very happy watching that game with an eye on the season to come.
While we appreciate in the Premier League we are not likely to be having as much possession as we did against our local hosts, and the quality of the opponent will be on another level entirely, the way we pressed for errors from the hosts trying to play out from the back, and the way we broke at pace and scored when we dispossessed them even on the edge of our box was hopefully a sign of things to come for when we face teams in our first season back at the top level.
We have hired in a lot of pace and athleticism, and we started to show how we may use it.
The variation of scorers was nice to see, too. The assists were just as good, and the slotted passes from Le Fee, Mayenda, and Roberts to name but a few, were good enough to dissect teams way better than our opponents in this pre-season run-out.
South Shields v Sunderland - Pre-Season Friendly Photo by George Wood/Getty Images
I will add that the appearances from Diarra and Abdullahi were among the most encouraging of all. Abdullahi was unlucky with injuries last season, and based on this performance, he may well offer something at least from the bench come the main season.
For someone who has been involved with the club for a matter of days, though, Diarra looked a very classy act. His engine is immense, his ability is clear, and once he builds interplay to levels beyond what he already showed (the work with Mundle for his goal was a joy to watch), I think we have a real gem of a player there.
Defensive options given a good run over
The final takeaway I had from the game was that while we are certain to still be working on defensive options in the recruitment, we look like we have a good few to blend in with further signings.
We played two totally different 11s with different defences, and players like Huggins, Seelt, Triantis, and Johnson all played their part in keeping our end from being breached.
Yes I think we will end up bringing in more options and the back and we will need them to get through a season like this one to come, but having players come back from successful loans and long term injuries offers options, and I really hope the club give these lads the best chance of some game time if they show the potential for the level.
If not, we should get them back out on loan or let them go and replace with better, but all these lads gave it a good shot, and did their chances of a slot somewhere in the wider squad no harm at all.
Sunderland v Coventry City - Sky Bet Championship Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images