SIMON GRAYSON insists he has not given up hope of signing goalkeeper Robbin Ruiter after explaining the Dutchman’s absence from Sunderland’s final friendly of the summer which ended in a heavy defeat to Celtic.

The Black Cats were thumped 5-0 by the Scottish Premier League champions at the Stadium of Light this afternoon when new signing Jason Steele was handed his first appearance between the posts.

Steele, a £500,000 signing from Blackburn, was unfortunate to be part of such a disappointing team performance against the Bhoys and, although he made a couple of decent saves, he did not display the quality he has.

Grayson is keen to follow up the signature of Steele with that of free agent Ruiter, and is keen for them both to battle it out for the first team shirt following the departures of Vito Mannone and Jordan Pickford.

Burnley have also emerged as rivals for Ruiter’s signature after he impressed in his two friendly appearances. Grayson said: “He (Ruiter) was always going back to Holland. Hopefully we will be able to conclude the deal.”

There was also no Jeremain Lens against Celtic because of an injury picked up against Bradford, while there has been an offer turned down from Besiktas for his services.

Grayson said: “Obviously everybody is aware that we had a bid which we didn’t think matched his valuation but he was injured from the Bradford game and so he wasn’t available. It depends how he goes in the next few days, he might not be here in a few days if a bid comes in.”

Sunderland will open the new season at home to Derby next season and Grayson admits that watching preparations end so calamitously at the Stadium of Light against Celtic was not ideal.

He said: “It’s an eye opener for everyone. Just when you think you are going along in decent fashion it is obviously disappointing to suffer a result like that.

“Today we didn’t work hard enough, there were too many errors, too many bad decisions and when your decision making is like that against a strong team like Celtic they will punish you.

“You can’t make decisions like that at any level of football. It was a wake-up call. What could go wrong did go wrong. We have had a really bad day and we start to put that right tomorrow.

“After today it’s not my (starting) 11! I said all along that this was not a rehearsal for Friday. They can play themselves in and out of the team. We will sit down and go through what we need to do better. This has come along and it is a big week for us in terms of preparation. There are a lot of things have got wrong that we need to put right.”

Sunderland were three goals down by half-time and James Vaughan had missed his second penalty since signing from Bury.

It was not a pretty way for new-look Sunderland to mark the 20th anniversary of football at the Stadium of Light, even if more than 8,000 fans from Scotland certainly enjoyed themselves with their own party in the South Stand.

Steele had already conceded the first of his five goals inside five minutes. The former Middlesbrough shot-stopper saw one of his first touches, a pass that was off the floor, poorly dealt with by Lamine Kone.

The Ivorian defender’s attempt at a hooked clearance went horribly wrong as it hit him and rebounded into the path of Callum McGregor who rolled a finish beyond the keeper. McGregor added a second and Jonny Hayes a third before the interval.

Frustrations grew when Brendan Galloway and Aiden McGeady were in attendance for number four when Tony Ralston was brought down, although it looked just outside the box. McGregor, showing Vaughan how it should be done, completed his hat-trick nine minutes after the break from the spot.

Steele was beaten again with 23 minutes remaining. Stuart Armstrong found himself in space 20 yards out so he tried his luck, dispatching a low shot that was hardly flying in and it found a way through a crowded box and inside Steele’s far corner.

SUNDERLAND (4-2-3-1): Steele; Jones (Matthews 75), Browning, Kone (O’Shea 53), Galloway; Cattermole (Gibson 75), Ndong; Grabban (Asoro 66), Khazri (Honeyman 31), McGeady; Vaughan. Subs (not used): Djilobodji, Love, Embleton, Mika, Stryjek (gk).

CELTIC (4-2-3-1): de Vries; Ralston, Ajer (Benyu 70), Tierney (Hill 64), Miller (McCart 70); Kouassi (Aitchison 81), Ntcham (Bitton 46); Hayes (Rogic 46), McGregor (Henderson 73), Sinclair (Armstrong 46); Forrest (Ciftci 64). Subs (not used): Hazard (gk).