Wednesday made it two wins out of two in the EFL Trophy group stages and sealed a place in the knockout rounds of the competition after a 2-0 victory over Sunderland under-21s at Hillsborough this evening.

We were in control for large parts of the game, Sunderland managing just one goalbound effort and the only possible danger was complacency, with the Owls giving the ball away unnecessarily at times.

Our domination was there from the start and we missed a great chance on five minutes when Callum Slattery headed into the ground from Liam Palmer’s cross, allowing keeper Joe Cowan to comfortably tip over the bar.

Sunderland gradually began to play themselves into the game but we were rewarded with a deserved goal on 20 minutes, punishing some casual defending from the visitors and Jaden Heskey pounced to turn the ball home from six yards.

Soon afterwards, the young Black Cats had their only effort of the night on target, Connal Trueman diving to his left to push a low effort from Felix Scott away for a corner.

Then the experienced Alan Browne missed their best chance of the evening, firing wide from 12 yards.

Wednesday went close to doubling our lead soon after half time when only Cowan’s reflexes kept out a close-range effort from Jamal Lowe.

However, a second home goal did come on 80 minutes when Barry Bannan broke into the box on the left-hand side, took advantage of a deflection and fired across Cowan into the far corner of the Kop net for his first goal of the season.

It also clinched top spot in the Northern Group A table and sends us through to the knockout stages.

Trueman, Fusire, Santos (James 46), Otegbayo, Palmer, Mitchell (Bannan 46), Thornton (Duruh 78), Heskey, Slattery (Oliver 46), Akpobi, Burstow (J. Lowe 46). Unused subs: Maynard-Brewer, Hatfield. Attendance: 5,423.