“It was much better” Team Sunderland men’s first team manager James Clark reflects on York thrashing

Team Sunderland Men’s first team manager James Clark walked off the Ford Quarry Hub pitch with a smile on his face after his side’s 6-1 battering of York St John’s.

This came a week after his side edged past Teeside in a match that should have been far more comfortable, so Clark was pleased to see a significant improvement in performance. He said: “It was much better, a lot more fluid. I thought that we played quite well throughout the whole game. There was probably a 10/15 minute spell in the first half where we’ve gone 2-0 up and slackened off and allowed them back in the game, but apart from that, I thought we controlled the game for 90 minutes.”

From the first whistle, it was evident that Sunderland had approached this game with a different mentality to last weekend as they created plenty of chances and managed to score two quick-fire goals. Clark outlined his message to the players before the game: “A few things about last week, and what our expectations are. It was the last game for some of them, so we wanted to perform at our best for them.”

When Sunderland were awarded a penalty late on to round off the drubbing, there was some visible confusion as to who was going to take it. Clark went on to explain the chaos that surrounded the incident: “It should have been Harry taking it, and I specifically brought him on to do it as it was his last game, but it went in so that’s fine.”