Sunderland U21s beat Leicester City U21s 4-2 on Friday night.
Sunderland saw their youngsters in action on Friday night as they hosted Leicester City at the Academy of Light.
The Black Cats’ U21s are getting a lot of attention this season, with the club looking to bleed in the next generation of Dan Neils and Anthony Pattersons ahead of the next campaign.
The game also saw some more experienced players featuring.
Aji Alese signed a new deal with Sunderland on Friday morning and made his long-awaited return to actions for the U21s later that day.
Bradley Dack was also in the team sheet and on the scoresheet too, with club captain Corry Evans starting the game as he builds up his return from a major knee injury.
Corry Evans Sunderland injury
The 33-year-old, who is out of contract in the summer, has been sidelined for more than a year now, but made his return to U21s action earlier this month.
The former Blackburn Rovers enforcer started a game against Newcastle United’s U21s and scored a long-range goal on his comeback.
And he impressed again against Leicester City. Sunderland Echo gave him a rating of 7/10, with journalist James Copley adding:
“Ran the midfield in the first half and looked a cut above the rest. His experience and quality really shows at this level. Always had time on the ball.”
Corry Evans pushing for Championship return before the end of the season
Evans looks like he’s making very good progress on his return to action.
There’s still a long way for him to go and realistically, he might not be at full speed until the start of next season, by which time he might be at a completely different club.
But after such a long injury lay-off, progress will inevitably be slow, and Evans will surely just be happy to be back playing football and impressing once again.
Sunderland fans know exactly how good of a player he is; it seems like his experience and overall class is shining through at U21s level, and let’s not forget that it’s a Sunderland U21s side already brimming with talent.
To return from such a major injury and to look like he’s not even missed a week’s worth of football speaks volumes about Evans.
Sunderland now have eight games left of the season with the next coming against Cardiff City next weekend.
That game looks set to come too soon for the Northern Irishman, but with several weeks of the season left, he’ll surely be thinking that he’ll now have a part to play in the final run-in.
How big a part it might be remains to be seen. But if Evans can pull on the Sunderland shirt one more time then it’ll be a huge credit to him, and a memorable moment for fans.