Sunderland forward Danny Graham is pleased with his pre-season progress to date and he feels Dick Advocaat’s squad are in good shape to start the new Premier League season.

The former Swansea City players has struggled to make an impact at the Stadium of Light since making the switch to the north east in 2013.

He has been out on loan from the Black Cats but it seems Advocaat may be willing to give him his chance to impress.
The 29-year-old is delighted to be getting game-time under his belt.

“Pre-season has been good so far; I did a lot of work myself over the summer,” Graham explained.

“I played ¬90 minutes against Darlington initially, which was tough as I wasn’t expecting to play for so long, but it was nice to know I could do it so early on in pre-season.”

Graham also featured as Sunderland started their North American tour with defeats against Sacramento Republic and Club de Futbol Pachuca in California.

“The games in Sacramento were obviously much different (to Darlington),” Graham continued.

“The conditions were a lot warmer and there’s been a lot of travelling in the last few days and that can take its toll.”

Sunderland round off their tour against MLS club Toronto FC at the BMO Field, with Graham hoping they can take a step forward in that game.

“Wednesday’s game will again be about getting more match time under our belts, that’s the key thing for all of the squad during pre-season,” Graham added.

“We need to get that sharpness back and get as many players to have a run-out as we can and hopefully put on a better performance than our last game and end on a high.”

Sunderland begin the new Premier League season away at Leicester on Saturday 8th August, a game the Black Cats are 4.00 to win. Leicester are 2.00 with the draw 3.30.