ALEX NEIL remains hopeful that Sunderland will have “one or two” new signings in place by the time they kick-off the Championship season against Coventry City on Sunday, despite having missed out on a deal for Troy Parrott, who has joined Preston.

Sunderland completed their pre-season preparations as they drew 1-1 with Hartlepool United last night, with Elliot Embleton’s penalty on the stroke of half-time cancelling out an early own goal from Ellis Taylor.

As was the case at Bradford City last week, a lack of attacking options meant midfielder Jack Diamond had to play as a centre-forward, with the Black Cats’ lack of success in the transfer market meaning Ross Stewart remains the only senior striker on the books.

Neil is hoping that will have changed by the weekend, with talks ongoing in an attempt to re-sign Nathan Broadhead, who spent last season at the Stadium of Light on loan from Everton.

“When it comes to getting players in, then myself and everyone at the club that is dealing with transfer matters can only push it as far as we can push it,” said the Sunderland head coach. “That’s what we’re currently trying to do.

“Naturally, we want to try to add before the weekend, and we hope that one or two of those run their course, and we manage to get them in. But I won’t be spending all my time worrying about that if I can’t affect it. My main priority is to get the lads that we’ve currently got onto the training pitch, and get us ready for the first game.

“If we can get bodies in, then that will naturally help us. We’ve got seven games between now and the end of the window, and we certainly don’t want to be giving any teams games head start by being under-strength.

“That’s something we’re fully aware. It’s something we discussed before the play-off final, and then more intently ever since we were promoted. It’s not lost on us. I don’t want people thinking we’re sitting on our backsides just hoping somebody walks through the door. There’s a lot of work going into it, but it’s certainly not straightforward.”

Parrott has been one of Neil’s key attacking targets all summer, but while the Irish international was instructed to leave Tottenham on loan after signing a contract extension to 2025, he opted to join Preston on a season-long loan rather than move to the Stadium of Light.

“Troy’s one I’ve monitored for some time,” said Preston boss Ryan Lowe. “His work ethic is fantastic, his hold-up play is very good for the style he is, but ultimately we want Troy to score goals for us. We’ve beaten some fantastic competition to get him. I’m really pleased to get him on board, he’s going to be a fantastic addition.”

As well as attempting to sign a couple of new forwards, Neil is also keen to recruit another goalkeeper to provide cover and competition to Anthony Patterson.