Sunderland’s young Black Cats have made a promising start to pre season, with two Forum Sports clients making their mark in the club’s opening warm up fixtures.
Sixteen-year-old Kay Munyakazi opened the scoring for Sunderland’s Under 21s in a 1-1 draw against National League North side South Shields, finishing from a narrow angle after Ahmed Abdullahi had drawn a sharp save from the hosts’ goalkeeper. It was Kay’s first appearance of the new season and continues the trajectory that has already seen the midfielder become one of the youngest players ever to feature for Sunderland’s U21s. Cedwyn Scott levelled for South Shields with just over twenty minutes to play, but Kay’s confident finish was the standout moment for the Sunderland academy on the night.
Charlie Dinsdale featured for Sunderland’s first team in the second half of Sunderland’s 5-1 pre-season victory over League Two side York City at the LNER Community Stadium. Introduced as one of a number of second-half changes by Régis Le Bris, Charlie was a consistent threat down the flank and provided the assist for Sunderland’s fifth goal, beating his man and cutting a cross back for Tom Proctor to head home from close range.
Two very different stages, two young players making their case as pre-season builds towards the new campaign.