SUNDERLAND ................................................................ 0 Bhoy-ant Celtic sink all-at-sea Black Cats
THE Stadium of Light’s 20th anniversary celebrations fell flat as Sunderland were trounced by Celtic as the Scottish giants won the inaugural Dafabet Cup.
Callum McGregor grabbed a hattrick – including one from the penalty spot – while Jonny Hayes and substitute Stuart Armstrong were also on target as Celtic capitalised on some woeful defending, while Sunderland’s new £500,000 goalkeeper Jason Steele endured a nightmare debut.
The Black Cats forced visiting keeper Dorus de Vries into a string of excellent saves in the first half, not least with the Dutchman keeping out a penalty from James Vaughan and then also foiling the striker’s follow-up.
As a pre-season friendly, the scoreline was not of primary importance.
But Sunderland boss Simon Grayson will have been very worried at the way his team was comprehensively dismantled on home turf, less than a week before Derby County visit Wearside for the Championship opener.
Grayson started all six of his new signings, which meant latest additions Lewis Grabban and Steele both made their debuts.
But there was still no sign of Jeremain Lens and Josh Maja, both of whom missed the midweek game at Scunthorpe United through injury.
Nor was triallist goalkeeper Robbin Ruiter – who had made sufficient impact in the two previous games to convince Grayson to offer him a contract – in the squad, amid reports of interest in him from elsewhere.
Sunderland made the worst possible start, with keeper Steele and defender Lamine Kone conspiring to gift McGregor the opener inside the first five minutes.
Steele pass put the defender under pressure just outside the box, but he sliced his attempted clearance straight to the forward inside the area and he collected before beating the keeper with a low finish.
Vaughan almost levelled five minutes later with a powerful header from McGeady’s chipped cross, but de Vries made an excellent save. And Celtic doubled their lead just before the quarter-hour, Kone wanderin wandering out of position five yards outside the penalty area w which allowed James Forr Forrest to slip the ball to McG McGregor and he slotted hom home.
W Wahbi Khazri had a cha chance to pull a goal ba back but was chal- lenged just as he was about to shoot inside the area, and he picked up a knock in the process and was replaced by George Honeyman soon after.
Sunderland’s defence was being cut open at will by Celtic who created three chances in quick succession on the half-hour, with only a goalline block by Brendan Galloway from Scott Sinclair, then a save from Steele, and finally the post, preventing the visitors adding to their lead.
The Black Cats had a goldenen opportunity to get back into the game 10 minutes before the break whenen Honeyman was brought down insidede the box by Olivier Ntcham and refereeeree Tony Harrington pointed to the spot. ot.
But Vaughan saw his spot-kickkick saved by de Vries diving low to his right, and although the ball came backck to the striker his follow-up effort wasas blocked by the keeper using his legs.
Grabban brought another save out of de Vries soon after.
However, the Black Cats conceded again five minutes before half-time,lf-time, as Steele could only push a Sinclairnclair shot to Hayes eight yards out to thehe right of goal and he had time to controlrol before firing back across the keeperr into the net.
There was no let-up in thehe second half either, with Celtic addingdding a fourth goal from the penalty spot shortly before the hour.
McGeady brought down Tonyony Ralston, possibly just outside the box, but the referee awardedd the penalty and McGregor sent Steele the wrong way from the spot to complete his hat-trick.
And Armstrong completeded the rout midway through the second period with a 25-yard shot throughhrough a crowded penalty area which ch beat Steele and found the bottomm righthand corner.