Alex Neil was pleased with Sunderland's performance in their final pre-season outing - although he admits he would rather be going into the season with more momentum behind them. The Black Cats dominated against League Two Hartlepool United but had to settle for a 1-1 draw, meaning they end their pre-season preparations with just one win from five games - not counting the friendly against Rangers in Portugal which they were leading when it was abandoned at half-time due to a power cut.
But while results have been elusive, Neil has been largely happy with the displays put in by his side as they gear up for next Sunday's Championship opener at home to Coventry City. "I'm not going to lie in that I'd like to be going in with a bit more momentum in terms of getting wins on the board, so certainly now come Sunday that is the main priority," said Neil.
"I thought we deserved to win the game tonight, and I actually thought we deserved to win the game on Saturday [which they lost at Accrington]. We got 90 minutes into a lot of the players' legs. Hartlepool made seven changes at half-time, we made none, so they were fresh whereas our boys had already put 45 minutes in.
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"There was a bit of a mismatch there but that was good for us because it means we have to work harder. We've worked on a couple of different shapes now and styles, but the difficulty I've got is that we haven't got the players in yet that I need to play those styles.
"We've got quite a few guys playing out of position at the moment - we're light in certain areas, we know that. We want to try and add before we get to the weekend, which is really important and we still have a lot of work to do in that sense."
Neil used a back three at Pools and the system worked well, although the hosts took the lead through an own-goal very early in the game. But Elliot Embleton levelled from the penalty spot in first half injury time, and Sunderland almost completed the turnaround in the second period when Luke O'Nien hit the woodwork.
Neil said: "I thought you could see tonight how we tried to play, I thought the way we played, particularly in the first half, was excellent - the way we controlled the game, dominated the match. We were hit by a sucker punch, and probably the two occasions when they looked the most dangerous were from our corners, which is not particularly good but they are easy things to fix.
"Certainly, some of our young players it is maybe a bit of inexperience in terms of sliding across and grabbing spaces. In the main, the senior lads did as I expected them to do. They did well, and the younger boys came in and gave it a good go, so it was pleasing."
Asked about the decision to go with a back three, Neil said: "It was a case of not having any centre-forwards available, it was a case of wanting to get the players that were available in the best shape for them to perform, and equally it was about us getting a good understanding of different shapes and strategies that we might need during the season."
