Embleton spot on as wasteful Wearmen held
ELLIOT Embleton’s penalty in firsthalf injury time saw Sunderland round off pre-season with a draw at League Two Hartlepool United.
Pools took the lead with an owngoal inside two minutes but the Black Cats went on to dominate for virtually the entire 90 minutes.
They created a series of chances in the first half but could not find a finish until Jack Diamond was fouled and man of the match Embleton scored from the spot.
In the second half, more chances came and went with midfielder Luke O’nien going closest to winning the game when he slid the ball against the post soon after the restart.
Sunderland boss Alex Neil made a full slate of changes following the weekend defeat at Accrington, choosing to give more squad members minutes rather than using the match as a dress-rehearsal for Sunday’s Championship opener against Coventry City at the Stadium of Light.
Neil opted to play with a back three of Carl Winchester, Danny Batth and Aji Alese, with Trai Hume and Harrison Sohna as the wingbacks.
Jay Matete, O’nien, Embleton and Ellis Taylor formed a diamond in midfield with Diamond up front.
Sunderland made a bright start and applied early pressure, winning a corner, but were then caught out on the counter-attack as Hartlepool scored from their first attack.
The hosts broke forward quickly and the ball was played into the righthand channel for Jack Hastie, who beat Alese inside the area and reached the byline. His cross was deflected into the net, possibly off Taylor as he tried to get back.
After that setback, the remainder of the first half was essentially one-way traffic towards the Pools goal.
Hume was picked out with a deep cross and saw his shot pushed behind by Ben Killip for a corner and a few seconds later Diamond squared the ball across the six-yard box - but it was slightly behind O’nien who could only reach it on the turn and his tame effort was off target.
Batth sent a downward header narrowly wide from an Embleton corner from the right before another Embleton
corner - this one an inswinger from the left - almost caught Killip out and he had to tip the ball over the bar.
A poor clearance from Killip was picked up by Embleton 35 yards from goal but the goalkeeper recovered his ground to save the long-range shot.
Sunderland should have levelled on the half-hour when a mistake by Jack Hamilton let in Diamond.
He rounded the goalkeeper but was wide of goal and tried to set up Embleton, who blazed his shot over the bar.
Killip then had to react quickly to turn a cross from Taylor over the bar.
Sunderland did find the equaliser they deserved in injury time at the end of the first period.
Diamond was running across the area when he was bundled over by Euan Murray and Embleton converted the spot kick – beating Killip and finding the right side of the net.
Sunderland should have taken the lead five minutes into the second half.
Taylor worked his way into the area on the left and rolled the ball across the face of goal but O’nien - sliding in at the far post - could only divert it on to the post and when the ball eventually came back out to Embleton he fired over the bar.
Embleton saw another inswinging corner clawed away and Hume glanced a header wide from a Taylor cross as Sunderland continued to pile on the pressure but without finding a way through.
HARTLEPOOL UNITED: Killip (Letheran 46), Tumility, Lacey (Menayese 46), Murray (Shelton 46), Ferguson (Paterson 46), Featherstone, Cooke (Niang 46), Crawford, Hastie (Ndjoli 46), Grey, Hamilton (Umerah 46).
SUNDERLAND: Carney, Winchester, Batth, Alese, Hume, Matete, O’nien, Sohna (Spellman 84), Taylor, Embleton, Diamond. Subs not used: Patterson, Wright, Ballard, Stewart, Cirkin, Evans, Roberts, Neil, Pritchard, Clarke, Gooch.
Referee: David Webb (Lancashire).
Attendance: 4,785.