I watched Sunderland's new signing Aaron Connolly for 45 minutes against Derby U21s - here's what I noticed

I’ll confess, I wasn’t actually in Eppleton on Monday evening to see Sunderland U21s dole out a 6-0 thrashing to poor, unsuspecting Derby County. Instead, for reasons that are hard to discern in hindsight, I was at my local Odeon, watching the new Joker movie. (I’m a football writer, not a film critic, but honestly, don’t bother.)

Right around the time that the trailers were ending and I should have been turning it off, however, my phone buzzed; Aaron Connolly - the free agent signing, the uncharacteristic roll of Kristjaan Speakman’s dice - was to make his first appearance of any kind in a red and white shirt. And so, it was within this context that I came home a couple of hours later, fired up YouTube, rewound the live stream, and cast a beady eye over the Irishman’s debut. There can’t be many people pulling the old Joaquin Phoenix/Graeme Murty double feature in one evening, but here we are. As for Connolly himself, forget a joker in the pack, he might just end up being the Black Cats’ ace in the hole.

The headlines, of course, will be dedicated to his goal. If there were any niggling doubts over the 24-year-old’s canniness in the final third, he dispelled them in less than half an hour against the Rams. Away he streaked down the left, all dust clouds and frosted tips, defender in his wake, before angling his dash towards the box and coolly slotting an effort beyond the on-rushing goalkeeper. It was, in cliched parlance, a striker’s finish, the kind honed and perfected over years upon years of repeated exposure to similarly gilded chances.

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But Connolly offered more than just a pleasing turn of pace and a single moment of composure. Throughout his first half showing, he pressed well, hassled his centre-backs, generally made a nuisance of himself. There is something terrier-like to him; the low centre of gravity, the tenacious way in which he nips and nibbles at ankles.

On another day, he might have had more than just the one goal contribution too. There was the incisive through ball that opened up Derby’s defence like a spatchcock chicken, from which Nazariy Rusyn fluffed his lines somewhat. Then there was the frankly audacious attempted lob from the general vicinity of the halfway line that, while a little dismal in its execution, acted as a firm reminder that, if nothing else, Connolly should be an awful lot of fun.

Naturally, and in slight contrast, there were some aspects of his performance that were lacking; this is a man who hasn’t registered a minute of competitive football since April 4th, and it showed in the occasional heavy first touch or lacklustre swing of a boot. But, for the most part, Connolly’s output - and perhaps more importantly still, his application - could not be faulted.

There is work to be done before he can truly be considered a starting option for Regis Le Bris’ first team, but on the basis of the early evidence, the striker looks more than willing to put the graft in. If he does, and if he can build on his promising display at Eppleton on Monday, then there is every chance that he will prove himself to be a worthwhile acquisition. Unlike my ticket to Joker: Folie à deux. Seriously, don’t bother.