Sunderland AFC news RECAP: Ross Stewart’s substitution explained, Will Grigg interest plus reaction to Alex Neil's first game

Alex Neil marked his first game as Sunderland’s new head coach with a 1-1 draw at AFC Wimbledon.
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The Black Cats fell behind when Luke McCormick converted from the penalty spot, before an excellent Alex Pritchard free-kick drew the visitors level.

Sunderland remain fourth in the League One table but have won just one of their last eight games.

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Alex Neil has signed a rolling 12-month contract and will be assisted by former Hamilton Academical team-mate Martin Canning.

Sunderland AFC live blog.Sunderland AFC live blog.
Sunderland AFC live blog.

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Sunderland AFC news RECAP (February 14)

Key Events

  • Alex Neil’s first game as Sunderland head coach ended in a 1-1 draw at AFC Wimbledon.
  • The Black Cats remain fourth in League One but have won just one of their last eight games.
  • Neil has signed a rolling 12-month contract at the Stadium of Light.
  • Sunderland have a week to prepare for next Saturday’s home game against MK Dons.

Thanks for joining us today

We’re signing off for today but have loads more Black Cats content over on the SAFC section of the Echo website.

See you soon.

Sunderland U23s in action tonight

Sunderland’s under-23s will face Wigan in the Premier League Cup tonight.

Sunderland loanee Will Grigg has been ruled out for around eight weeks with a hamstring injury which may require surgery.

The 30-year-old striker has scored six goals in all competitions on loan at Rotherham this season, and will be out of contract at Sunderland in the summer.

According to the Rotherham Advertiser, Millers boss Paul Warne is planning to try to sign Grigg permanently at the end of the season despite the injury setback.

Stewart substitution explained

Sunderland’s top scorer Ross Stewart was substituted in the 73rd minute when both sides were pushing for a winner on Saturday.

Neil said after the game: “If you look at Ross, he’s probably not played as many games as this in a season and we’ve still got another third to go.

“So that’s tough for him, and he looked a bit jaded, which is why I took him off.

“We’ve got to protect these boys, so that we try and freshen them up for these games physically and mentally.

“These next few games are going to be really important.”

We spoke to Alex Pritchard after Saturday’s game

Reaction to Saturday’s draw

Neil gave an honest assessment when asked about the job he has taken on.

“We’ve got to get our ideas into them next week,” he said.

“What struck me about that team was that I think there were seven players under the age of 22.

“So there’s not a lot of experience there and there’s a gap in terms of, experienced players have come into the club but they’ve not had many minutes, so they’re coming from a standing start.

“Then you have a lot of lads in their first year and at the minute, a lot of them look tired.

“Ultimately, we haven’t got a huge of amount of options so that’s something I need to have a good look at.

“I need to get minutes into these experienced players because they are key players if I can get them going. The difficulty I’ve got is that I’ve got very limited time in which to do that.”

Read more HERE

It’s certainly been an eventful two weeks!

Finally Sunderland have a new head coach, and Alex Neil has 14 games to try to revive the Black Cats’ season.

We’ll have more reaction to Neil’s first game in charge, as well as the latest SAFC news throughout the day.

Stick around and refresh the page for live updates.