Three goals in the last 20 minutes gave Sunderland a 3-0 win in their pre-season friendly against Hartlepool United at Victoria Park tonight.
Sunderland went close on several occasions in the first half, most notably when Steven Fletcher hit the post after a smart lay-off from Adam Johnson, but it remained goalless at the break.
Gus Poyet made a raft of changes on the hour mark, replacing several first-team members with players from the club's academy, and it was one of the youngsters that opened the scoring.
After picking the ball up from Mikael Mandron, Carl Lawson put his side ahead with a curling finish into the bottom corner on 70 minutes.
Two goals in the space of six minutes from right-back Andrew Cartwright secured the win for the Premier League side.
Joe Sharratt
