Last home friendly for Quakers on Wednesday
By Ray Simpson
Sunderland Under 23s are the visitors to BM (7pm)
It’s Quakers’ last home friendly of pre-season when Sunderland come to Blackwell Meadows on Wednesday night for a 7pm kick off.
Manager Alun Armstrong was pleased with the improvement in the 1-1 draw with Middlesbrough on Sunday compared to the defeat by Harrogate a few days earlier, and he’ll be looking for further progress against Sunderland’s Under 23 side.
Midfielder Joe Wheatley will return to the squad after missing the Middlesbrough game -- he was unavailable on family business-- while triallists Andrew Nelson and Liam Ravenhill will be included again. Latest signing Jake Cassidy will also be playing some part after joining before the Middlesbrough game last weekend.
The players’ fitness is steadily building up now. Alun was pleased with their levels at the weekend, and he’ll be looking for a higher level following a training session on Tuesday night.
“I would like to see a little bit more urgency in our play,” he said. “I also want us to take more of our chances because we created quite a few against Middlesbrough, but we only took one of them.
“We must also start a bit brighter and not concede an early goal, plus we need to be a bit more organised at setplays.”
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Sunderland could include former Darlington youngster Vinnie Steel, who was part of our youth set up before he moved to York City three years ago and then on to Burnley.
Sunderland have yet to name a squad for the game, but here’s their squad that was on duty last week at Hebburn.
Jacob Carney, Patrick Almond, Nathan Newall, Harrison Sohna, Fenton Green, Khaya Gregory, Ethan Kachosa, Tom Scott, George Baker-Morgan, Stephan Wearne, Benji Kimpioka, Jack McIntyre, Caden Kelly, Vinnie Steel, Harry Gardiner, Will Harris, Cameron Jessup
This will be our last home pre-season friendly before the big kick off against AFC Telford United on 14th August.
Our last friendly is at Whitby on Saturday, kick off 3pm. Please note that there is another event taking place in Whitby on Saturday – and it’s a holiday weekend -- so leave plenty of time for your journey.
Buy your match ticket here for Wednesday night's game:
https://yourclub.darlingtonfc.co.uk/match-tickets
Admission is £10 adults, £8 for concessions, £5 juniors. Under 11s free, by cash or contactless.
Here's our half time ad roll, thanks to Alex Holland:
