Pete Sixsmith would have enjoyed this, but was nowhere near Scotland as Jack Ross went back to his last club, St Mirren, and saw his developing Sunderland side romp home 6-0.
(See the highlights here at safc.com)
Pete has been tasting pasties and footie down in Cornwall and will not catch another Sunderland game until the League One season kicks off. Ross’s admiring post-match comments confirmed the adage that when pre-season games go well, they are no longer ‘just about fitness’. The goals came from Josh Maja (2), Lynden Gooch (2), George Honeyman and Luke Molyneux. Apologies to Gooch – we thought it was Molyneux who’d also bagged two.
For this match, we’ll just run a contingency supersub’s verdict in place of Sixer’s usual seven-word summation (and for sake of completeness add ones from the Darlington and Grimsby games, too, though Pete was there for the former).
And while we’re on, does the Maja double act, and goals from midfield, suggest our striker woes are not quite so dire as has been suggested? We’ll see …
The Sunderland team was: McLaughlin; Love (Hume, 80), Ozturk (Taylor, 84), Flanagan, Matthews; Cattermole (Mumba, 74), McGeouch (Hackett, 84), Honeyman (Kimpioka, 84); Maguire, Gooch (Molyneux, 78), Maja Subs: Stryjek
Read more at: https://www.sunderlandecho.com/sport/football/sunderland-afc/impressive-sunderland-hit-st-mirren-for-six-in-convincing-friendly-win-1-9263069
An asterisk preceding any seven-word verdict shows it was not Sixer’s own (we’ve cheated a little with Darlo)…