AS CELEBRATIONS go this was certainly not what Sunderland had in mind for the final warm-up fixture ahead of life in the Championship as Celtic cruised to a 5-0 victory on Wearside.

The Scottish Premier League champions, fielding a team that was nowhere near full strength, were three goals up by half-time and James Vaughan had missed his second penalty since signing from Bury.

It was not a pretty way for new-look Sunderland to mark the 20th anniversary of football at the Stadium of Light, even if more than 8,000 fans from Scotland certainly enjoyed themselves with their own party in the South Stand as they lifted the Dafabet Cup.

A dreadful day that has left manager Simon Grayson were more questions than answers got off to the worst possible start when debutant goalkeeper Jason Steele had already conceded the first of his five goals inside five minutes.

The former Middlesbrough shot-stopper, bought for £500,000 from Blackburn this week, saw one of his first touches, a pass that was off the floor, poorly dealt with by Lamine Kone.

The Ivorian defender’s attempt at a hooked clearance went horribly wrong as it hit him and rebounded into the path of Callum McGregor who rolled a finish beyond the keeper.

Nine minutes later it was two when a fantastically well worked move cut open the Sunderland defence and ended with Scott Sinclair rolling in McGregor to convert his second.

Celtic goalkeeper Dorus de Vries, selected ahead of former Sunderland keeper Craig Gordon, was posed a few questions in the first half and he responded in perfect fashion.

He had already made a strong one handed save to his right to prevent Vaughan’s close range header from finding the far corner before he made the penalty stop after George Honeyman was hauled down by Olivier Ntcham De Vries dived to his right again to thwart Vaughan’s spot-kick, just a fortnight after he missed one at St Johnstone, and then he got up and blocked the rebound too.

There was another save from Grabban for de Vries to enjoy, while Steele made another at the other end soon after only for the ball to end past him again anyway.

The third arrived with six minutes remaining of the first half. Steele parried away Ntcham’s curling effort towards the far post and it fell invitingly to Jonny Hayes. The former Aberdeen winger, who was not closed down quickly enough by Brendan Galloway, picked out the far corner with the rebound.

This was not only the first chance Sunderland’s home fans had to get a glimpse of Steele and Vaughan in action, there were also first outings on Wearside for Aiden McGeady, Galloway, Ty Browning and Lewis Grabban.

And the frustrations grew when Galloway and McGeady were in attendance for number four when Tony Ralston was brought down in the box. McGregor, showing Vaughan how it should be done, completed his hat-trick nine minutes after the break from the spot.

Steele was beaten again with 23 minutes remaining. Stuart Armstrong found himself in space 20 yards out so he tried his luck, dispatching a low shot that was hardly flying in and it found a way through a crowded box and inside Steele’s far corner.

Sunderland return to action at the Stadium of Light on Friday against Derby County, when Grayson knows his team must come up with a far better performance in all areas for the new season to start on a positive note.

SUNDERLAND (4-2-3-1): Steele; Jones (Matthews 75), Browning, Kone (O’Shea 53), Galloway; Cattermole (Gibson 75), Ndong; Grabban (Asoro 66), Khazri (Honeyman 31), McGeady; Vaughan. Subs (not used): Djilobodji, Love, Embleton, Mika, Stryjek (gk).

CELTIC (4-2-3-1): de Vries; Ralston, Ajer (Benyu 70), Tierney (Hill 64), Miller (McCart 70); Kouassi (Aitchison 81), Ntcham (Bitton 46); Hayes (Rogic 46), McGregor (Henderson 73), Sinclair (Armstrong 46); Forrest (Ciftci 64). Subs (not used): Hazard (gk).