Sunderland played out their penultimate pre-season game last night, running out 6-0 winners over Irish League side Athlone.

A brace from Chopra and further goals from Richardson, Leadbitter, Murphy and a first goal in Sunderland colours for Diouf, were enough to see Keane’s men to a comfortable win.

Here’s the notes and team lineup…

Athlone 0 Sunderland 6

The Black Cats really should have bagged more goals as Chopra missed opportunities to seal a timely pre-season hat-trick while Stokes had countless goal attempts without getting on the scoresheet.

Keane put out a strong side with new signings Chimbonda, Malbranque and Diouf making their second starts in Sunderland shirts. Tanio was left on the bench, no doubt saved for tomorrow’s game against Shamrock Rovers that will end Sunderland’s pre-season preparations.

Kieran Richardson’s fitness remains a concern – he limped off in this one after 54 minutes. His pre-season has been up and down, filled with three goals and several knocks and scrapes. It will be interesting to see if he makes an appearance in tomorrow’s game. Given his propensity to get forward in pre-season in the 4-5-1 formation that Keane is employing, he could be worth watching once the season gets underway.

Sunderland vs Athlone:
Ward (Fulop 54); Whitehead, Chimbonda (Collins 83), Higginbotham, Liddle; Edwards, Miller (Leadbitter 46), Richardson (Murphy 54), Malbranque (Diouf 74); Stokes, Chopra.