George Dobson’s move from Walsall may have hindered his pre-season, but he reckons that he’s ready to go if selected on Saturday. Dobson said: “I’ll be ready if the manager wants me on Saturday. Playing in the first game of the season for Sunderland, if I’m used, if I’m not used I’ll definitely be ready and the adrenaline of playing in front of such a huge crowd will get you through anything. I’m just looking forward to the season starting. The size of the football club, it shouldn’t be in this division, so for me to come here is an absolute honour,’’ he added. “Every time I do get the opportunity to play on this pitch for this football club, I just want to get it back to where they belong. I’d say when we play two central midfielders I like to press and try to get up and down the pitch and get tackles in but at the same time I like to get on the ball and play forward passes because I feel for a midfielder it’s a very important part of your job. There’s plenty of things I need to work on but the facilities here are unbelievable so I’m going to use them to my advantage and hopefully improve myself as much as I can to firstly get in the team, then help it to have a very positive season.’’
In other news, Marc McNulty scored a hat-trick in a behind closed doors friendly against Hartlepool at the Academy of Light on Monday afternoon, which we won 5-2. The other goals came from Aiden McGeady and Chris Maguire.
