Sunderland’s preparations ahead of the 2011/2012 campaign were extensive, with Steve Bruce taking his squad on a three-game tour of Germany as well as lining up fixtures at Kilmarnock, Burnley, Hartlepool United and Hibernian.
However, our busy schedule started relatively close to home, with a visit to York City of the Conference National taking place fourteen years ago today.
Decent things were expected of The Lads following two seasons of relatively steady progress under Bruce and the summer recruitment drive had already got underway.
New boys Simon Mignolet and Titus Bramble were both named in the starting XI and appeared in Sunderland colours for the first time — black and lime green for the goalkeeper and blue and white for the outfield players, a change strip that had first been revealed days after the end of the previous season.
Although York had been languishing outside the Football League for several years, they were starting to look up and by the end of the campaign had secured a promotion and FA Trophy double.
The clues were also there against Sunderland, as whilst the hosts eventually lost this fast-paced game, they also managed to give a good account of themselves, creating several chances as they went.
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That said, they went behind following an error in midfield that allowed Lee Cattermole to intercept and set off a counter.
The move then saw Steed Malbranque and Kieran Richardson combine down the wing to get the ball to an overlapping Phil Bardsley, who cut inside and blasted home past former Sunderland man Michael Ingham.
York did rally and had a penalty shout turned down when Jason Walker attempted to round Mignolet, but they fell further behind after the half hour mark when twenty one-year-old French prospect Oumare Tounkara curled the ball into the net beautifully.
Moments before that, a deflected Jack Colback corner had needed to be cleared off the line but The Minstermen were still keen to stay on the attack when they could. Liam Henderson hit the bar following a set piece routine and once Bruce had made a raft of second half changes, City were able to heap further pressure onto a more youthful-looking Sunderland.
Jamie Reed was awarded a penalty after being tripped by Bramble’s outstretched leg and placed the spot kick down the middle before coming close to an equaliser with a long-range effort that substitute Trevor Carson did well to save.
Impressive reflexes from Ingham in the final ten minutes denied Craig Lynch a goal that would’ve placed a slightly unfair reflection on proceedings, but at this stage it was minutes in the tank that Bruce was focusing on after giving run outs to several figures.
The trip to Bootham Crescent, where 2,574 travelling fans comprised exactly half of the total attendance, had seen the Lads blow the cobwebs away and get things off to a winning start, and with things expected to ramp up over the coming days, Bielefeld was to be the next stop on a mammoth programme.
> _Wednesday 13 July 2011_
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> _Pre-season friendly_
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> _Attendance: 5,148_
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> _York City 1 (Reed 63’)_
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> _Sunderland 2 (Bardsley 13’, Tounkara 32’)_
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> _**Sunderland:**_ _Mignolet (Carson 46’), Ferdinand (Laing 82’), Turner; Bramble, Bardsley (Adams 72’), Malbranque (Elmohamady 61’); Cattermole (Noble 80’), Gardner (Reed 80’), Colback; Richardson (Lynch 80’), Tounkara (Cook 61’)_