Sunderland boss Alex Neil delivers this verdict on his side as pre-season ends

Whilst admitting that he would have liked a better pre-season campaign in terms of results, the Sunderland head coach said he was generally pleased with performance levels and the progress of his side.

SUnderland fell behind in the opening minutes on Monday night, but equalised on the stroke of half time through an Elliot Embleton penalty.

Neil had rotated his side significantly as expected and given the number fo youngsters who featured, with some out of position, he was pleased with their efforts.

"The fact is, we've got a few guys playing out of position at the moment,” Neil said.

“We're light in certain areas and we know that, we want to try and add before we get to the weekend and we know we've got a lot of work to do in that sense.

“I thought we controlled the game, dominated the match, and got caught with a sucker punch. They probably looked the most threatening from a couple of our corners but listen, that's easy enough to fix. Sometimes with some of the younger lads it's just a bit of inexperience as well.

“I thought in the main the senior lads did as I expected. So for the most part I thought it was pleasing.

“The most important thing is the 90 minutes in the legs for the lads. They made seven changes at half time and we made none, so naturally in the latter stages there was a bit of a mismatch. That was good for us because it meant we had to work harder.

“You've seen as well that we've worked on a couple of different shapes, which we're getting more familiar with.

“Listen, we're getting there.

“The lads that played the other day did really well in large spells, and that was the same here.

“I'm not going to lie, I'd like a bit more momentum in terms of wins on the board. I thought we deserved to win tonight, and the other day to be honest.”