Andy Welsh has lavished praise on Sunderland under-23s after they clinched back-to-back victories in four days.
The Black Cats saw off Benfica on Friday as they opened their Premier League International Cup campaign with a win, courtesy of goals from Joel Asoro and Luke Molyneux.
However, the development team had no time to dwell as they turned their attentions straight to Manchester United and set their sights on earning their first win in the Premier League 2 since September.
And that’s exactly what they did.
Seb Larsson broke the deadlock minutes before the half-time interval, and while Manchester United flew out the traps after the restart Jan Kirchhoff secured the win on his return to action as he slotted home Rees Greenwood’s squared pass.
Speaking post-match, Welsh delivered his honest assessment.
“I thought we were good from start to finish,” he said. “It was a terrific result and a very good performance from the lads.
“Special praise has to go to all the players because we had an extremely tough game against Benfica on Friday night. We came through that and it’s been a great four days for the lads.
“We had an experienced team out against Man Utd with Lynden Gooch, Jan and Seb and they were excellent,” he continued.
“They bought into the game and from start to finish they were great when we had the ball and when we didn’t they worked really hard.”