Lee Connelly scored a hat-trick as Sunderland under-18s brushed aside the challenge of Doncaster Rovers at the Academy of Light on Saturday afternoon.
Following a tight first-half, Connelly ran rampant in the second period as he broke the deadlock after a neat strike across the face of goal.
Moments later, the Scotsman made himself a nuisance and capitalised on a defensive mix up to fire home his second.
Jack Diamond then made it 3-0 with a neat chip before Connelly rounded off a ruthless second-half display when he slotted home his third of the afternoon after excellent combination play.
Elliott Dickman highlighted Sunderland under-18s’ need to deal with physicality better in his pre-match notes, and as anticipation continued to rise ahead of the U18 Premier League campaign Doncaster provided another robust battle.
Having credited the youth team’s character over pre-season, Dickman watched with great interest in mid-week as his young guns clawed back a two-goal deficit in a fine second-half display against a powerful Oldham Athletic side.
And while it was extremely tight at the break again, the youngsters once again upstaged their opponents in a scintillating second 45 minutes.
A mazy run from Benjamin Mbunga-Kimpioka down the left flank saw him pick out Connelly well-placed inside the area to expertly sweep home into the bottom corner.
Shortly after, Connelly struck his second of the afternoon when a hopeful punt down field caused havoc with Doncaster’s backline.
Connelly could sense the hesitation and he sneaked into profit and doubled the hosts’ lead.
While Doncaster continued to plug away, the young Black Cats’ quality shone through and Diamond showed great awareness to make it 3-0.
After neat play down the right-hand side, Diamond timed his run in behind to perfection and while he was running away from goal, a little glance up gave him the foresight to chip the on rushing keeper.
It was a fine goal which summed up Sunderland’s dominance, but there was more to come…
With time all but up, Connelly calmly slotted home his hat-trick, after an excellent free-flowing move, to complete his second hat-trick in seven days and round off pre-season with 10 goals in five friendlies.