Sunderland comfortably wrapped up their tour of Ireland with a comfortable 4-0 win against Galway United, as Roy Keane went for a close-to-full strength team against the Irish strugglers.

Roy Keane named Marton Fulop in goal in a line up that saw Greg Halford continue his run of starting in every pre-season friendly, as there were nine changes in total from the side that started Monday's draw with Cork City. Sunderland didn't take too long before going in front, as Michael Chopra opened his Sunderland account on six minutes, when a neat passing move from midfield saw Kieran Richardson put him through on goal, but from the edge of the area Chopra instead opted to lob the ball over Gary Rogers and into the back of the net.

Ross Wallace came close to doubling our advantage five minutes later with another shot from outside the area, this time the ball went just over Rogers' bar. Anthony Stokes forced a save out of Rogers with a free kick on 15 minutes as Sunderland enjoyed a dominant start against the Eircom League strugglers. Although Galway rarely threatened, Sunderland took their time creating their chances, and it wasn't until the half hour mark when we had our next crack on goal, when Paul McShane sent a header over the bar as he got to a Kieran Richardson corner kick.

Sunderland ended the first half with two players booked, as Anthony Stokes saw yellow for lashing out at Derek O'Brien, before Kieran Richardson got a caution for his part in a challenge with Galway's Alan Murphy, who also went into the referee's notebook. Shaun Fagan came close with a free kick as the first half drew to a close, while Michael Chopra's attempted through ball to Stokes was overhit in stoppage time.

Dwight Yorke came on at half time for Dickson Etuhu, but Sunderland struggled to get back into the foothold they'd won in the first half. We waited until the 55th minute before creating decent chances, with Daryl Murphy curling a shot off target. Our next good chance found the back of the net though, as Kieran Richardson's run down the left wing resulted in the new arrival cutting into the box and firing a slow shot past Alan Gough to make it 2-0. Chopra almost made it 3-0 moments later, as a long ball fell to him in the box, but he was only able to poke a foot to the ball and send a simple shot towards Gough.

Galway had a string of efforts to claw back their deficit, with Jack Russell firing straight at the legs of Fulop from close range on 60 minutes, while Vinny Faherty missed a golden chance to get back into the game on 68 minutes when a cross fell to the feet of the young striker, who leaned back as he took his shot, sending the ball sailing into the crowd, after he'd headed the ball wide of goal earlier on.

Sunderland wrapped up the scoring on 83 minutes, when Stern John took the ball to the byline and sent in a cross for David Connolly to nod in from close range. John made it 4-0 a minute later, as he raced forward into the box, before playing a one-two with David Connolly and tucking the ball home from inside the area. Darren Ward had to push away blistering shot in injury time as Galway tried to get a consolation goal, but in the end we kept our clean sheet as we return home unbeaten.

Sunderland: Fulop (sub 78, Ward), Halford (sub 59, Kay), Nosworthy (sub 60, Varga), McShane (sub 60, Anderson), Wallace, Stokes (sub 71, Donoghue), Whitehead (sub 64, Leadbitter), Etuhu (sub 46, Yorke), Richardson (sub 60, Collins), Chopra (sub 59, Connolly), Murphy (sub 65, John). Sub: Miller.

Galway United (first half): Rogers, Nooitmeer, A Keane, Charles, Fitzgerald, Lester, Fagan, Glynn, Moran, Murphy, O'Brien.

Galway United (second half): Gough, O'Halloran, McKenna (sub 80, Walsh), Reilly, Tracy, Russell (sub 83, Cunningham), Foley (sub 84, M Keane), Robson, Davoren (sub 80, Cooke), Faherty, O'Flynn (sub 83, Fahy).