ALEX NEIL has backed Scotland striker Ross Stewart to handle the step-up to the Championship this term as Sunderland continue their pre-season schedule in Portugal.
The Black Cats saw their friendly with Rangers cut short on Saturday night as a half-time power outage plunged the Estádio Municipal de Albufeira into darkness.
The match was eventually abandoned 45 minutes later as both Neil and Ibrox boss Giovanni van Bronckhorst saw their preparations disrupted and a handful of players were left with no game time.
Sunderland will return to action on Wednesday when they face Serie A giants Roma and the countdown is on their Championship opener at home to Coventry City later this month.
Stewart was an inspirational figure for Neil's side throughout last term and he will now get the chance to build on his run-out against Rangers as he gets set to make the step into England's second tier.
“It wasn’t great," Neil, whose said were leading through a Luke O'Nien goal, said after the lengthy delay and early finish on Saturday night.
"It was disappointing, really, because minutes are important for us now and what it has done is set us back a little bit because 90 minutes for a lot of those players was going to be crucial and we didn’t manage to get them.
“What I can take from it is that I thought our performance for the 45 minutes was really good against a strong Rangers team. I thought we were the better side, so for me that was really pleasing.
“I know how good Rangers can be. I have seen them over the years. I thought our lads applied themselves really well.
“It is a different level that we are going to be testing ourselves at [going into the Championship] but Ross did great for us last year and he will go into the season with real confidence based on how he did last season.
“I don’t think any of us have any concerns in that sense. But obviously the proof will be in the pudding and we will see how we go.”
