AS if they weren’t feeling bad enough after last night’s farcically-late decision to prevent them from attending their side’s pre-season game at Harrogate Town, the 1,500-or-so Sunderland fans who had tickets for Wetherby Road will be even more frustrated now.

Missing out on any game of football at the moment is annoying. Missing out on your side strolling to a 4-0 away win is an especially painful experience.

Playing behind closed doors after Harrogate’s safety advisory group decided the lifting of Covid restrictions did not apply in this leafy part of North Yorkshire, Sunderland’s players produced easily their best display of their pre-season programme so far.

Elliot Embleton’s two early strikes set the tone for a dominant away display, with Carl Winchester also finding the net before an own goal from Harrogate goalkeeper Mark Oxley completed the scoring.

Lee Johnson still has plenty of work to do in the transfer market ahead of his side’s season opener with Wigan Athletic in two weeks’ time, but the Black Cats head coach can at least take some solace from the way in which his side’s young players appear ready to step up to the mark.

Embleton, Jack Diamond and Dan Neil all impressed this afternoon, with teenage loanee Callum Doyle once again oozing class and assurance at the back.

Johnson was able to name Luke O’Nien in his starting side for the first time in pre-season, but in the absence of regular full-backs, he was forced to name Winchester and Neil at right-back and left-back respectively. The fact they went on to perform so impressively might well have given him food for thought ahead of the start of the season.

Johnson will also have been impressed with the performances of Embleton and Diamond, two youngsters who look set to play prominent roles next term. Provided, of course, Sunderland retain Embleton amid ongoing interest from Blackpool.

The midfielder, who spent the second half of last season on loan at Bloomfield Road, opened the scoring in the 11th minute at Wetherby Road, creating space on the right corner of the area before drilling in a low strike that found the net via a slight deflection off a Harrogate defender.

He added a second goal four minutes later, although this time, the deflection on his strike was even more consequential.

Evans laid the ball off to Embleton close to the edge of the box, and his strike took a huge deflection off a sliding defender before looping over Oxley.

Harrogate’s only first-half chance of note came to nothing when Luke Armstrong, son of Darlington manager, Alun, and a key factor in Hartlepool’s promotion back to the Football League last season, headed wide at the front post following a cross from Ryan Fallowfield.

With Manchester City loanee Doyle once again impressing alongside Tom Flanagan at the heart of the back four, that was a rare moment of alarm from the Black Cats, who claimed a third goal five minutes before the break.

Diamond’s good work down the left enabled him to move the ball infield to Aiden O’Brien, who pierced the Harrogate defence with an excellent through ball. An overlapping Winchester took the ball in his stride, and slipped home a slick low finish.

Ross Stewart wasted two good chances to add a fourth goal at the start of the second half, firing two efforts too close to Oxley after being released behind the Harrogate backline, and Johnson opted to make five changes on the hour mark as the game became somewhat disjointed.

One of his alterations saw youngster Ellis Taylor come on, and he played a prominent role as the Black Cats finally made it 4-0 in the 68th minute.

Taylor’s cross took a hefty deflection off George Thomson, and in his panicked attempts to tip the ball over the bar, Harrogate goalkeeper Oxley only succeeded in helping it into his own net. It wasn’t quite as high profile, but the incident had definite parallels to Martin Dubravka’s horror show for Slovakia during Euro 2020.

Sunderland (4-3-3): Patterson (Burge 46); Winchester, Flanagan, Doyle (Younger 60), O;Nien; Embleton (Taylor 60), Evans (Wildin 60), Neil; Diamond (Hawkes 80), Stewart (Kimpioka 60), O’Brien (Grigg 60).