WITH just a week to go until the season, manager Alex Neil's stark admission that places in his Sunderland side could be one or two things. He could be playing his cards close to his chest ahead of their Coventry City opener (and that's been known to happen) or his current crop of players haven't done quite enough to assert themselves as a definite starter.

Neil is treating their pre-season games purely on their physical benefits giving his players the best possible preparation for the season. The minutes under their belt will have been useful against Accrington Stanley but there was a sense of frustration as they walked away tasting defeat having largely dominated the game.

Ross Stewart's penalty on the stroke of half-time deservedly put the Black Cats in front but their inability to put the game to bed allowed Sean McConville to seize on some lapse defending at the back to win the penalty and score it himself. Korede Adedoyin was the fox in the box from the long throw as he slammed home from close range after an initial scramble for the ball.

Troy Parrott of Tottenham and Nathan Broadhead of Everton are high up on the agenda for Sunderland this summer. Perhaps the manager's comments are the latest indictment on the club's current list of options in attack. “What I took from it is the fact that if you don’t take opportunities and chances that come your way then you may pay the consequence of that” said Neil.

In fairness, Ross Stewart's potency in front of goal has never been called into question. However, there were plenty of opportunities in the game for Sunderland to have put the game to bed.

Neil continued: “I thought we could have easily been four or five nil up at half-time. At the start of the second half we had two great chances. One I think Jack (Clarke) gets his given offside. I haven’t seen it back and he wasn’t offside but he doesn’t score.

“The other one, he is clean through, cuts inside and the keeper makes another good save. We had more than enough in the game and played really well for three quarters of the match and then what happened was they started jumping a bit more aggressively.

“We get caught on the ball and as soon as we conceded the penalty, the game changed for ten or fifteen minutes at that point because they just do what they do. Put the ball forward and be aggressive. We didn’t win enough battles.

“I thought we saw the very best of us in the first half. Some of our football was excellent and for that 15 minute spell in the second half I thought we saw the worst of us.”

It was a mixed bag performance at the Wham Stadium which was accurately summed up by the manager. But the way in which they couldn't recover from the equaliser will have given him food for thought. A physical Accrington side brought that to the forefront and it paid dividends from the long throw that led to their second goal.

With another game tonight against Hartlepool United in pre-season later tonight, the hope is that more players can make the decision for him regarding their place in the side.

Recent results in pre-season may not make for pleasant reading but the feeling amongst the squad is that they can't get hung up on scorelines with the season around the corner.

"First of all, we want to win the game and that's how we've set out but I think in pre-season, it's not the most important thing" full-back Dennis Cirkin told SAFC TV after the game.

"The most important thing is preparing for the first game, getting minutes which is happening so we've got eyes locked in on the first game of the season."