Sunderland's pre-season got off to a solid start with back-to-back wins in their double-header against South Shields and Gateshead. First up was Julio Arca's newly-promoted National League North side at lunchtime, with the Black Cats winning 4-3 at the 1st Cloud Arena thanks to Chris Rigg's last-minute strike, with Jack Clarke scoring twice and summer signing Hemir also on target.
Then it was a dash to the International Stadium to take on Mike Williamson's National League Heed side where Sunderland came from 2-0 down to win 3-2, with Dan Neil, Niall Huggins, and Michael Spellman scoring the goals. Tony Mowbray was unable to call upon a number of senior men such as Ross Stewart, Corry Evans, Elliot Embleton, Dennis Cirkin, Danny Batth, Aji Alese, and new signing Jenson Seelt, who are all at various stages in their comebacks from injury.
And new addition Nectarios Triantis was also absent, having only just flown back to the North East after having been given some extra time off at home in Australia following the late finish to his season. Mowbray split his first-team squad in order to name strong starting lineups in both games, but made multiple changes in the second halves which meant that by full-time Sunderland were fielding teams made up entirely of youngsters.
