Black Cats get James Montgomery so sharp

The 22-year-old is benefiting from twice-weekly training sessions with the Stadium of Light outfit – his hometown team.

Montgomery, who is related to legendary Sunderland keeper Jim Montgomery, stood out in Saturday's 2-1 friendly loss to Aston Vill.

He denied £6m striker Rudy Gestede on numerous occasions and pulling off a wonder save to keep out Scott Sinclair's effort.

"He trains with Sunderland on a pretty much daily basis and you can tell the benefits of it," said manager Rob Smith.

"The kid is top drawer. I've always said he's going to become a pro goalkeeper, it's only a question of when. Hopefully we can keep him for this season.

"He's maturing. He's a young boy who's always going to make mistakes, but he's getting better and better.

"I wouldn't be surprised if he gets snapped up by Villa the way he played against them on Saturday."

Montgomery spent a week's full-time training with Wolves in the last pre-season.

He's been training with Sunderland all summer after deciding to devote all his time to his football rather than combine it with a job as he did last season.

The ambitious shot-stopper asked former Villa and Manchester United goalkeeping coach Eric Steele – who he worked with in the Nike Academy – if there was anyone at Sunderland with whom he could train.

He got the go-ahead to join their under-21s, where there are familiar faces from playing against them for Middlesbrough's academy teams.

"They've let me go in every Monday and Tuesday and I train with their under-21s keepers. It's a good standard and it's nice to push ourselves," he said.

"Last season I was working and my head was focusing on that rather than football, but football is my only job now which will hopefully bring me on.

"The sessions are going to help as long as I manage my body and make sure I don't get too fatigued because it's a good tempo."

Montgomery reckons he didn't find the Villa game as taxing as some in National North. "It wasn't as direct as I'm used to," he said.

Meanwhile, Telford are gearing up for their fifth pre-season friendly tonight when they host National North champions Solihull Moors. "I'm looking forward to seeing what their physical threat is," added Montgomery.