Defender Conor Townsend is looking forward to the team fine-tuning their season preparations during the next week.
Sunderland visit Glanford Park for our latest pre-season friendly on Wednesday night (7.30pm kick-off), and the former Hull defender told iFollow Iron how it would be a challenging, but welcome, test for his side.
ON THE WEEK’S TRAINING CAMP IN AUSTRIA…
CT: It was tough, pre-season always is and we knew how challenging Austria would be. We went a week later than last year, but it was still challenging. It’s good for the squad, because we have some new lads, and it’s a decent way of embedding them in the squad. It was a good week and hopefully it will help us in the season. We had four sessions a day and it was tough but that’s what we’re here for, and we need to be fit going into the season. You’re working hard and at the time you’re completely shattered, but it will stand us in good stead in the long run.
"You can’t read too much into the games, it was more just for fitness and getting minutes into our legs."
ON THE TWO 6-0 WINS IN AUSTRIA…
CT: You can’t read too much into the games, it was more just for fitness and getting minutes into our legs. A lot of us played a lot of minutes out there. We will look to fine-tune everything in the next couple of games.
ON THE SUNDERLAND TEST THIS WEEK…
CT: They have just been relegated from the Premier League and come here with some really good players. They will be trying to get fit like we are, and it will be a good test for us. Hopefully we can see where we match up. It’s another game, and a chance to get 90 minutes against good players.
ON THE SEASON OPENER BEING 10 DAYS AWAY…
CT: When you start pre-season, you’re looking towards that first game. It’s gone pretty quickly and all the lads are looking forward to it. Hopefully we can have a good season.
ON HIS PERSONAL AIMS…
CT: Hopefully I can stay injury-free and, as a team, we can have a good season. The aim is to better last year - hopefully we can do that, go up and get the job done.
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