Scout Notes – Pre-Season Round-up

David Moyes wins his first match in charge at Sunderland, Jordan Mutch continues Crystal Palace’ unbeaten summer run and Middlesbrough cruise to victory in the Spanish sun.

Here’s the latest from a low-key day of action…

Stade Nyonnais 0 Sunderland 2

Two penalties from Duncan Watmore handed David Moyes his first win as the new Sunderland manager blooded eight Academy players.

Watmore, priced at 5.0 and listed as a midfielder in the official Fantasy Premier League game, was used up front as Jermain Defoe missed the match with a niggle.

As highlighted in our Budget Midfielder article, Watmore could offer great value if he is deployed in advanced positions by Moyes, and he did his case for a forward berth no harm in Switzerland.

He earned the first penalty himself and slotted home the second just before half-time following a foul on George Honeyman.

Moyes recalled Billy Jones and Lee Cattermole after they recovered from minor knocks and fielded Jack Rodwell as a makeshift centre-half, but otherwise used his more senior players sparingly in the hot Alpine conditions.

Sunderland XI: Mannone, Jones, Ledger, Rodwell (J Robson 46), T Robson (Borini 76), Cattermole (N’Zogbia 46), E Robson, Honeyman (Van Aaanholt 76), Gooch (Khazri 76), Watmore (Asoro 64), Greenwood (Lens 76).

Colchester United 0 Crystal Palace 1

Jordan Mutch’s sweet strike from a Jason Puncheon assist made it three straight pre-season wins for Palace.

Alan Pardew gave 20 players a run-out and, having trialled a 3-5-2 in the previous friendly, opted for a 4-2-3-1 formation with Connor Wickham as the lone striker supported by Andros Townsend, Puncheon and Yannick Bolasie, who managed just under 60 minutes in his first start of the summer.

Mutch and Hiram Boateng anchored the midfield and Pardew gave Alex McCarthy the full 90 minutes in goal.

Wilfried Zaha, James Tomkins, Bakary Sako and James McArthur all missed out, with Pardew confirming pre-match:

”They just have minor knocks that they’re not really ready for the game, so we’ll see how they are on Wednesday ahead of Wimbledon.”

Crystal Palace XI: McCarthy, Ward, Dann (Kelly 70), Delaney (Croll 70), Fryers (Binnom-Williams 78), Boateng (Jedinak 59), Mutch (Ladapo 85), Puncheon (Lee 59), Bolasie (Kaikai 59), Townsend (Berkeley-Agyepong 70), Wickham (Campbell 45).

Middlesbrough 2 Al-Ahli 0

Middlesbrough ended their time in southern Spain with a 2-0 win over Saudi champions Al-Ahli.

Second half goals from David Nugent and a fine individual strike from Julien de Sart sealed the victory for Aitor Karanka’s team.

Viktor Fischer provided the assist for Nugent’s goal, with Karanka again using the Danish international winger in the No10 position, although he later partnered Nugent in attack.

Eleven changes were made for the final 20 minutes, with Alvaro Negredo and Jordan Rhodes used up front, and Karanka also experimented by deploying left winger Adam Reach as a full-back as he seeks cover for first-choice left back George Friend.

The coach was happy enough with his side’s Spanish trip, saying:

“We have three weeks to fix one or two things. We still need players like Dani Ayala to recover – I don’t think Grant (Leadbitter) will be ready – but it’s good that we have three weeks to work at home.”

Centre-half Ayala, who has not featured in pre-season due to an ankle injury, is still ‘a week to 10 days’ away from selection, Karanka added.

Middlesbrough XI: Konstantopoulos (Mejias 70), Nsue (Barragan 70), Baptiste (Morris 70), Jackson (Gibson 70), Reach (Friend 70), Forshaw (Clayton 70), De Sart (de Roon 70), Stuani (Ramirez 70), Fischer (Negredo 70), De Pena (Adomah 70), Nugent (Rhodes 70).