Dead Black Cats 0-3 Aston Villa

[TonyD]

The midweek match against Cardiff is huge.  Lock out crowd like against Ipswich.

[PeterWithe]

Nice routine victory ahead of sterner opposition on Saturday. Sunderland looked like us two years ago. Feel a bit bad for them.

I said much the same to the fella next to me, they had a couple of talented players but a lot of them looked like they didn't give a shit. The rest looked scared stiff, even though the crowd couldn't be arsed to get angry with them.

There but for the grace of God..

[paulcomben]

The midweek match against Cardiff is huge.  Lock out crowd like against Ipswich.

<Like> I was there on the Holte. Fucking Eric ‘Looks like the red riding hood granny’ Gates still did not ‘win the league win the league win the league’ did he?

[PeterWithesShin]

There's a lot of clubs more worthy of decline than Sunderland.

[paulcomben]

Nice routine victory ahead of sterner opposition on Saturday. Sunderland looked like us two years ago. Feel a bit bad for them.

I said much the same to the fella next to me, they had a couple of talented players but a lot of them looked like they didn't give a shit. The rest looked scared stiff, even though the crowd couldn't be arsed to get angry with them.

There but for the grace of God..

I would empathise, but Fergie protege O’Shea is a complete disgrace.

[AsTallAsLions]

Nice routine victory ahead of sterner opposition on Saturday. Sunderland looked like us two years ago. Feel a bit bad for them.

I said much the same to the fella next to me, they had a couple of talented players but a lot of them looked like they didn't give a shit. The rest looked scared stiff, even though the crowd couldn't be arsed to get angry with them.

There but for the grace of God..

I would empathise, but Fergie protege O’Shea is a complete disgrace.

He certainly is. They all are tbh.

[paul_e]

Any team which plays 2 in centre mid and includes cattermole is in trouble, all he brings is a nasty streak which disappears as soon as he gets his yellow.

[pbavfckuwait]

Good win,but Saturday will be a whole different ball game, we have to win as many of pour remaining as possible, as I cannot see any of Cardiff or Fulham blowing up between now and May, old Colin knows what he is doing and Fulham are on fire. But 3 points tonight well done Villa, lets go for it.

[Villatillidie1982]

Let's hope the new manager effect truly kicks in and the 'Nose can do the business on Saturday. Will add extra spice to the Wolves game. We are going up.

[footyskillz]

Just like to acknowledge Chessie and a well deserved goal. Think he's been up there with best signings since relegation. On and off pitch goes about his job professionally. International class, captain qualities and happy he buried header when seen him miss a few targets. Him and JT are the solid pairing in championship and both can play premier league. Pleasing to see Grabban show for goals and even more having grealish and adomoah involved. Enjoyed seeing Hourihane drive forward to force the og. Sunderland huffed and puffed especially second half with villa in second gear really and could have been more goals for villa. What I would like to see is Grealish not slow up with ball and drive forward like Leroy sane. Grealish can also shoot more as he is a great position many times.
Adomoah supply is on par with anyone in league and Grealish can also copy him if not sane.

[PeterWithe]

Grabban was also excellent in his general play albeit a bit sloppy with simple passes.

He starts ahead of Hogan as a lone front man for me

[olaftab]

I thought we were sloppy in places, the forwards often playing the ball back and under hitting the pass, Hogan never gets near to heading one of Johnstone's clearances.
Elmo, Terry, Whelan and Taylor all guilty of playing hospital passes at times, lucky not to get punished, they will by better teams.
When we are under pressure we never seem to be able to find an outlet player and hence the ball comes back at us.
Johnstone's kicking is poor , I reckon 1 out of 3 goes somewhere intended.
How many times did we have an attacking opportunity only for the ball to end up at Johnstone's feet?


and yet we still won 3-0.....just shows how crap they were, I'm afraid not how good we were.

Great. This is the sort of critique that's going to turn us into invincible.

[olaftab]

Nice routine victory ahead of sterner opposition on Saturday. Sunderland looked like us two years ago. Feel a bit bad for them.

2 years ago Sunderland looked like we did two years ago.

[olaftab]

I’m gonna say it.
I don’t want to be accused of going overboard or being overly dramatic, but...

Jack is starting to have a look of a young Sid about him.

There, I’ve said it.

STOP GOING OVERBOARD and  oh  yes STOP BEING OVERLY DRAMATIC.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

What a strange game that was. It reminded me of a pre-season friendly against a lower league, part time team from Scandinavia in an half empty stadium. Just how poor are Sunderland? Like others, it's really sad to see them so shite. As I mentioned at half time, we never needed to get out of second gear to go in 2-0 up. It's a shame we couldn't raise our game and really punish them second half. It was only when Jack came on that we started to show some real ambition.

We probably won't have another easier game in the next 10 years, pre or full season. As others have stated, we were very sloppy at times and Grabban deserves a mention too amongst those already listed. He needs to work on his control and passing if he intends to feature more often. The other thing I noticed was how much we miss the Scottish Cafu. His driving runs down the flank are very much underappreciated. Taylor plays very flat and seemed programmed to pass the ball either sideways or back.

Now we've got a pre-season victory under our belts I'm really looking forward to the season kicking off on Saturday. We're going to have to go up a gear or three if we want all the points. In Jack We Trust.

Oh and happy for Frank on here. 625 miles for friendly is not only amazing support, it's bloody mental. I hope the beer was nectar.