Sunderland defender Billy Jones believes pre-season allows the team to lose their rustiness and eradicate any errors before the start of the Premier League season.

The Black Cats suffered a dismal campaign last time out and the club were at one stage tipped to go down after a dreadful run of form that had seen the team slip into the bottom three.

Dutchman Dick Advocaat was brought in as a temporary replacement for sacked manager Gus Poyet and the change had the perfect effect with results taking a turn for the better.

Sunderland ended up finishing 16th in the table and, having staved off relegation once again, the fans will be hoping for some investment to enjoy a better season.

Advocaat, who signed a one-year deal this summer, has already added Adam Matthews and Sebastian Coates to the squad and the thoughts are now focused on improving the attacking quality of the team.

The Black Cats were put through their paces on Thursday in a friendly against Darlington at Heritage Park and they were 2-0 down after just 18 minutes of the matches.

Sunderland did manage to fight back, with goals from Emanuele Giaccherini, Danny Graham and Connor Wickham sealing a 4-2 triumph, and Jones believes the mistakes made are part and parcel of pre-season.

“Obviously you want to start pre-season with a win,” he told the club’s official website. “I made my debut here last year so we knew it was going to be a tough game and knew was going to be competitive.

“We showed a bit of character though to come from 2-0 down and that it exactly what pre-season is for, because you’re going to make an error now and then and you need to get them out of your system before the start of the season.”

Sunderland take on Leicester City on the opening day of the Premier League season at the King Power Stadium with the hosts 1.95 favourites, while a draw is 3.25 with an away victory a 4.00 shot.