Sunderland and West Brom were also in action last nigtht both being held to 1-1 draws at Vitoria and the slightly less glamorous, Cheltenham, respectively. Here’s my notes from those games…

Cheltenham 1 West Brom 1

Marek Cech grabbed the headlines with a debut goal from left-back for the Baggies. The Slovakian international notched his first goal for the club via a massive deflection on a 20th minute shot. He also caught the eye with a 45 minute performance littered with a number of foraging runs that could well put him in the box seat for the left-back spot come the season kick-off.

Mowbray elected for a 4-4-2 with Beattie and Miller paired up front. He also gave Carson a debut in goal following his £3.5 million move from Liverpool. Carson kept a clean sheet before being subbed on 45 minutes.

West Brom vs Cheltenham:
Carson (Daniels 45); Hoefkens, Barnett, Hancox (Baker 45), Cech (Tininho 45); Worrall (Sawyers 69), Greening (Martin 82), Labadie, Brunt (Manton 82); Miller (Slusarski 60), Beattie (Knight 69)

Vitoria 1 Sunderland 1

Kieran Richardson recovered from a dead leg to take his place in the Sunderland lineup and fire an equaliser after Keane’s side fell behind after just 2 minutes of this one. Richardson crashed home a left foot effort after Kavanagh’s corner was only half cleared.

Having seen Chopra dismissed on Sunday against Sporting, Keane watched on as Whitehead and Reid picked up pre-season yellows here. He’ll be glad to leave Portugal without further bans hanging over his players then, as Sunderland now return to the UK and prepare for their next friendly with Cobh Ramblers on Monday.

Sunderland vs Vitoria:
Ward, Nosworthy (Bardsley 46), Anderson, Collins (Wallace 46), Higginbotham, O’Donovan (Edwards 46), Leadbitter, Kavanagh (Whitehead 46 [Kavanagh 84]), Richardson (Reid 46), Chopra (Murphy 46), Prica (Yorke 46 [Stokes 59])