Simon Grayson heaped praise on his players as they produced a professional display against Livingston this evening.
Wing wizard Wahbi Khazri continued to impress for the Black Cats as he produced a sterling display both in and out of possession in his 60-minute outing at the Almondvale Stadium.
Khazri netted the opening goal at Hibernian on Sunday and he was at it again with 20 minutes played, reacting quickly to Lynden Gooch’s parried strike and guiding his right-footed attempt into Neil Alexander’s far corner.
Sunderland had to wait until the second period to force home their dominance further, substitute Joel Asoro applying the magic touch from close range in his first pre-season appearance.
But Jeremain Lens stole the show in the dying embers, thunderously hammering home from 25 yards to seal a pleasing 3-0 win.
Speaking to safc.com post-match, Grayson shared his pleasure both the result and the performance.
“We’ve had a couple of days on the training pitch and we’ve worked hard, so you saw tonight that certain aspects were better but when it comes to certain things there’s still work to be done.
“You saw two different sides to the team tonight; you saw an experienced team who kept the ball a bit better and in the second-half you had that youthful exuberance as they ran forward and had a real zest in their play.”
He continued: “Overall it we had three goals which is nice for any game you’re involved in, and we also kept a clean sheet which is nice because you have to get into the habit of not conceding.
“We know plenty about Vito [Mannone] and we felt that tonight was an opportunity to see Mika for 60 minutes and Max [Stryjek] for 30 – they both did exactly what was required of them.
“I though Max showed a lot of good qualities after he came on and Mika did what was asked of him in a confident matter, but on Saturday we’ll change it around again and Vito will get some game time.
“It’s good to have that competition for places and to know you’ve got people to fall back on and rely on in different games.”