The Sunderland starlet with 7 goals in two games who will be hoping to follow Chris Rigg into first team

Two matches, seven goals. If Sunderland starlet Marcus Neill was returning those kind of figures in a video game, you would perhaps suggest that he needed to up the difficulty level.

As it happens, however, the teenager is currently enjoying a staggeringly prolific purple patch for the Black Cats’ U18s in real life, and in doing so, continues to stake his claim as one to watch on Wearside.

Earlier this month, Neill - son of former West Ham and Blackburn Rovers defender Lucas - was on hand to net a sublime hat-trick against former club Liverpool in a 6-1 demolition at the Academy of Light. And then, on Wednesday afternoon, he followed up that feat with a four-goal haul against Blackburn Rovers in a 7-2 rout.

To a certain extent, Neill’s lethal streak in front of goal is nothing new or shocking. His glut of strikes in recent days has taken his tally to 15 for the season at U18 level, and already he has earned recognition for Graeme Murty’s U21s. Back in December, he even scored the winning goal in a Premier League 2 victory over Arsenal, despite his relative inexperience.

What does continue to astound, however, is just how consistently influential he is at such a young age. Neill is still only 16, and doesn’t turn 17 until the beginning of June, meaning that he is punching well above his weight, even for the U18s.

And while he is presumably still a little way off earning a nod for the first team, the manner in which the attacker has taken to life in the North East will surely please those who made such an effort to prise him away from Liverpool in the first place.

Speaking last year, Black Cats recruitment chief Stuart Harvey said: “We've known Marcus since he was a young kid at Blackburn before joining Liverpool. Liverpool is one of many clubs where we have developed strong relationships with, as we know it can be really difficult for academy players at Premier League clubs to have that pathway to first team football at the speed they would like.

"So we have to make sure we’re in a position to act when those that don’t necessarily push on at these clubs become available. We jumped on the situation with Marcus and our academy recruitment team led by Ian Archbold did a great job in persuading both him and Lucas that coming here was the right place for him to be.

“It’s all about talent and Marcus fits a model and the profile of the sort of player we look for - he ticks a lot of the boxes and we believe he can develop with us. Our model is giving youngsters the opportunity and platform to progress and that’s what we aim to happen here.”

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And that oft-heralded model continues to churn out a glittering array prodigious talent. This season alone, we have seen Chris Rigg emerge as one of the most exciting young players in English football, while Tommy Watson has done enough to convince Brighton and Hove Albion to spend £10 million on him and U21s captain Harrison Jones now looks to be a full-fledged member of Regis Le Bris’ first team squad. Even beyond that trio, promising centre-forward Trey Ogunsuyi is knocking on the door of the senior side, while Armenian youth international Finn Geragusian is starting to take the Premier League 2 by storm with his robust performances at the Eppleton Colliery Welfare Ground.

There are, of course, a smattering of other names besides, but slowly and steadily, with performances like the ones he has offered up over the past fortnight, Neill is ensuring that he is right there at the forefront of Sunderland’s next generation.

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