Lost 2-1. Pretty poor performance all round. Vaulks looks a good player and Danny Ward looked sharp but missed a couple of gilt edged chances. Forde looks like he hasn't settled in yet and short on confidence, and we looked very narrow in midfield. We have some good footballers in the midfield area but will need to find a balance. We were sluggish at the back - lacking pace and half asleep. Crap defensive header by Mattock for their first goal. S****horpe seemed half a yard quicker all over the field. Tonight was as worrying as Sunderland was encouraging. I never know with friendlies how much to read into them but to me it's obvious that we are at least three or four quality players away from being ready to compete in the Championship. Someone to make the ball stick up front, a natural goalscorer, and at least a couple of defenders needed. I think Kelly is the best defender we've got but for me he is an option for centre back and I would like to see a right back in who offers more going forwards. Mattock looks disinterested at times. Broadfoot and Wood as a pair will get ripped apart on a regular basis by any forward line with half decent movement. That's how I see it all.
Apart from Vaulk's opening 20 minutes when he showed great quality, there was nothing positive to report. Looking for excuses - perhaps having 3 out of 4 new midfielders explains why that part of the field looked so disorganized and without width. There's obvious talent in there and I'm confident that with time they'll become a quality unit. However, Forde needs to sort out his distribution which is poor. Also, S'thorpe were a very physical and determined side which unsettled us. I don't think most Championship sides will play that style which might be to our benefit. On the plus side, our stadium is literally in a different league to Glanford Park and the beer at the nearest pub is far inferior to that in Rotherham. I'm struggling to find any more positives.
