Preece appointed as Sunderland’s new goalkeeping coach

Sunderland have confirmed David Preece has been appointed as the club’s new firstteam goalkeeping coach.

Preece, who started his playing career on Wearside, has been working with the Black Cats throughout preseason and will replace Lee Butler in the role.

Since retiring as a player, the 44-year-old has been part of the backroom staff at Lincoln and worked as a goalkeeping coach at Swedish side Ostersunds FK.

Following the announcement, Preece said: “It would be an understatement to say that I'm delighted to be back at the club. I’m looking forward to the season ahead and all I want to do now is to get to work alongside the great staff and players already in place and do whatever I can to help the club progress."

While Sunderland have been looking to fill the vacant role, long-serving coach Mark Prudhoe has been working with the club’s keepers.

Black Cats head coach Lee Johnson added: “It is a great story for Preecy to return because he’s a local lad and I think he has unfinished business at the club.

“He has a good relationship with Mark Prudhoe, which is obviously going to play a big part in the goalkeeping sector moving forward, and I think that was important, but he also has the career to back up the detail.

"You need a very unique and specialised set of coaching skills, and human skills, to be a goalkeeping coach and we believe we have the right man for the job.”

*The EFL have confirmed that they will return to their pre Covid-19 position on streaming games this season.

That means Sunderland fans in the UK will not be able to stream games that take place between 2:45 and 5:15 on a Saturday afternoon.

Only fans overseas will be able to stream those games, provided that they have not been selected for international television broadcast in a territory that has an overseas broadcast partner.

However, the EFL have also confirmed that clubs will be able to offer a streaming service to UK supporters for any games that take place outside of that Saturday window.

That means that all midweek games not selected for TV can be streamed, as well as matches moved from their Saturday slot for non-TV purposes. Games that take place on a Bank Holiday can be streamed, and all Papa John's Trophy games up until the semi final can be streamed.