Luke O'Nien spoke to the media after Sunderland returned to action with a thrilling 4-3 win over South Shields earlier today.
GOOD TO BE BACK
"I think getting that matchday feeling back is just really good. After speaking to a lot of the fans who have turned out today, I think a lot of people including myself have missed it. I think me getting the rust out as well as good and the same for the others. It's just good to be back out there absorbing the atmosphere, and thanks to South Shields for hosting us and putting on a good game."
FITNESS/PERFORMANCE
"Obviously you want the fitness side but performances are just as important. We've got to nail down the principles of what we're going to take into the season. Just like any game we'll learn from it and we'll become better and better, like we did last season with the way we started and then grew into the season. It's important we do that from day dot, including now. So we've got a good base now and as a team now we've just got to keep building and getting better and better."
HEMIR/RIGG GOALS
"There's a lot of good performances out there. Hemir looks good and promising, he's done really well so far. Riggy, I've loved him from the first time he came up to the first team and smashed someone - he probably smashed me! He's been great. I thought Ben Crompton alongside me was really good. He's been really good in training and I thought he was exceptional today. So it's good to see the young players coming through, pushing us to be better and better. It's only going to do the club better in the future as well."
USA TOUR
"Obviously we've got America coming up which a lot of us are looking forward to. We're going out there to build fitness and perform, but build the principles and get closer as a team. We've got to make sure when we come back, we're a better team than when we went out there. So that's the plan and I'm looking forward to it!"
