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Phil Smith: Five things I thought watching Sunderland’s latest pre-season win at BlackpoolSunderland beat Blackpool 1-0 at Bloomfield Road on Saturday thanks to Jack Clarke’s late goal

Sunderland beat Blackpool 1-0 in their latest pre-season friendly on Saturday and here Phil Smith talks through some of the things he noticed from the game…Sunderland will face a familiar issue this season – but at least Le Bris is well aware of it

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Jack Clarke’s nicely-taken late winner at Bloomfield road means the cautious optimism on Wearside can rumble on towards the start of the new campaign. There were positives to take from this game, Sunderland dominating the ball and territory and giving further evidence that they should look more like Tony Mowbray’s side this season than the one that so limply ended the last.

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Even so, no one who watched this game would be under any illusions that they are significant challenges ahead. Sunderland have long struggled to break down deep-lying defences at the Stadium of Light and for large parts of this game they struggled to do exactly that, needing a little more precision in their passing and a lot more urgency in their play to find gaps in Blackpool’s five-man defence. Blackpool’s surge after the half-time interval, with the extra energy brought by substitute strike pairing Kyle Joseph and Jake Beesley, pushed the Black Cats onto the back foot for a while as they got to grips with a more direct approach.

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Le Bris spoke afterwards about the team needing to do a lot of work for when they face this kind of challenge in the season ahead, and the analysis work that would need to be done to dissect this game and improve. There was no sense of panic and it will reassure supporters that the head coach is well aware of what lies ahead. The Black Cats are making progress but there’s no complacency in the ranks.