Sunderland warmed up for tomorrow's dress rehersal at Old Trafford by thumping Manchester United 4-0 last night in the F.A. Premier Reserve League match at the staging of light last night.

John Oster inspired Sunderland to a well-deserved win, the Wales International opened the scoring in the first half and had a hand in two of the other goals as the Black Cats completed outplayed their opponents for long spells.

Belguim newcomer Tom Peeters was also outstanding in mid-field while substitutes Brendan McGill and Kevin Kyle weighed in with opportunic goals to sail a third successive win over the Reds at this level of the stadium of light.

Sunderland had, however, goal keeper Andy Marriott to thank for two outstanding saves before Oster struck in the 34 minute with a low drive after Danny Dichio had headed down Mark Maley's centre.

The skipper Dichio was replaced at the start of the second half by Kyle but it was McGill, on for the injured full back George McCartney, who made the first impact.

McGill's first effort from Oster's cross was blocked but when the move was repeated, the youngster made no mistake at the second attempt.

McGill turned provider in the 72 second after receiving from Oster, goal keeper Paul Rachubka, beat out Milton Nunez's close range header only for Kyle to react quickly and head home.

Kyle completed the rout in the 86 minute bursting through from Paul Thilwell's pass to lash a thundering 20 yard left foot drive into the corner of a net.

Sunderland Reserves: Marriott; Maley; McCartney (McGill 62); Byrne; Williams; McDerwell; Lumsdon; Peeters; Dichio (Kyle 45); Nunez; Oster (T Butler 83 minutes)

Manchester United Reserves: Rachubka; M Clegg; Studley; Brown (Lynch 69); O'Shea; Stewart; McDavies (Webber 62); G Clegg; Healy (Crossgrove 82); Notman, Djordjic

Attendance: 8,060

l Leeds United have confirmed that Harry Kewell will have an operation in the next 48 hours to sort out his Achilles tendon injury.

The Australian striker will be out for three months, missing the whole of the opening group stage of the Champions League which the Yorkshire outfit kick-off with a trip to Barcelona on Tuesday.

Kewell has not torn his Achilles, but persistent pain has not responded to treatment and he now faces an operation to clean up the sheath around the tendon.

Meanwhile, central defender Robert Molenaar has turned down a move to Wimbledon.

Leeds had excepted a £1million bid from the Dons, but Molenaar who has comeback this season after 18 months out with a cruciate knee injury decided against the move as it would have meant dropping down a division.

l Trinidad and Tobago have played down Dwight Yorke's late return to Manchester United from international duty.

Sir Alex Ferguson was less than impressed when Yorke arrived back on Tuesday, 24 hours later than expected.

It is understood Yorke and several of his British-based team-mates delayed their return to celebrate Trinidad and Tobago's victory over Canada on Sunday, which booked their place in the final CONCACAF qualifying round for the 2002 World Cup.

Trinidad and Tobago's team administrator Neville Chance was keen to talk down the incident and he stressed that all the players have the utmost respect for their clubs.

''We were aware of this after the fact,'' he said.

''But I don't want to pursue it.

''There may have been an incident, but we don't really know what has happened.

''What I prefer to talk about is the bigger picture and all the players who play professional football in England and Scotland love their individual clubs, we know there's no doubt about that.

''They earn their living there and they fully respect their clubs.

''When they come back to Trinidad and Tobago and are interviewed, they are always expressing their great joy and love for their clubs.

''So Dwight Yorke, Russell Lapaty and the other players all feel comfortable at their clubs.''

Trinidad and Tobago's qualification for the final round means they will play another 10 games on top of their two remaining group games in the semi-final stage.

These last two group matches take place in October and November, while the other 10 games will be played during 2001 on dates yet to be confirmed.

Yorke returned from Trinidad and Tobago with a hamstring injury and the prospect of losing the £12.6million striker for yet more games over the next 12 months is unlikely to improve Ferguson's mood