Manager Simon Grayson has spoken of his disappointment following Sunderland’s loss to St Johnstone in our most recent pre season friendly.
Heading to McDiarmid Park on Saturday for our final friendly of the pre season tour of Scotland, Sunderland went down three nil on the day and they sucker punched us with all three goals coming inside of six first half minutes.
New striker James Vaughan made his debut in the game and having won a penalty, but missed it, Vaughan would’ve hoped for better in his first run out.
It wasn’t the only chance we had to take the lead, but those chances went begging.
Grayson will look for the positives, albeit not many, but with most players getting a good hour under their belts at least on a fitness front it was a worthwhile run out.
St Johnstone:
Clark (Hurst 46), Tander, Shaughnessy, Millar, Davidson, MacLean, Wotherspoon, Foster (Watson 76), Scougall (O`Reilly 76), Gilchrist, Cummins (Trialist 76).
Subs:
McClean, Gordon, Hurst.
Sunderland:
Mannone (Stryjek 68), Matthews, Galloway (Love 46, Beadling 68), Kone (Djilobodji 61), O`Shea (Browning), Cattermole (Gibson 61), Ndong (E Robson 76), Rodwell (Asoro 46), Khazri (Honeyman 61), Lens (Maja), Vaughan (Embleton 68).
Subs not used: Ledger.
Referee: Nick Walsh.
Speaking to the Official Site following the game, a disappointed Grayson explained.
‘It was hugely disappointing to lose three early goals like we did and we shouldn`t be doing that. It`s been coming I think over the last few games when we`ve been too easy to play against.’
Grayson went on to say.
‘If you break the game down I thought we were lively in the first 10-15 minutes and we were a threat going forward, but then we had a crazy seven minutes. We conceded a goal and that happens but you then have to make sure you don`t concede another and ultimately another one after that because it gives you a mountain to climb, so it`s disappointing and the attitude wasn`t what I wanted at times. The only excuse I`ll give to the players is that they`ve had a tough week with training so fatigue may have played a part, but that`s still no excuse because they have to have a desire to be better and stop the opposition from playing.’
The problem for Grayson was the work ethic when we were out of possession as he’d been pleased with our play on the ball but he was demanding far more off the ball.
‘There`s good players here on the ball and that`s not a problem, but it`s what we do without it that will be the problem throughout the season if we`re not careful. It`s no coincidence that when the young lads came on they had a desire and a hunger to run around and make an impact on the game – if don’t do that and work hard at any level of football anybody could play.’
He added.
‘It`s an ingredient the players have to have and the mindset has to change as we`ve been speaking about over the last couple of weeks, and if they don`t want to do it one or two players can go elsewhere.’
