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Jan Kirchhoff sent David Moyes a positive message after coming through Sunderland Under-23’s win at Manchester United last night.

Not only did the German play the full 90 minutes of the 2-0 win, he also got his name on the scoresheet.

The defensive-midfielder has been out since the start of October with a hamstring injury, but gave Moyes a huge injury boost ahead of this week’s game at Liverpool.

With Lee Cattermole ruled out for at least four months, the Sunderland boss will be keen to get Kirchhoff back involved as soon as possible.

And the fact he came through the game unscathed is good news for the Scot.

Seb Larsson – another of Sunderland’s returning players – opened the scoring for Andy Welsh’s Black Cats when his deflected shot beat Kieran O’Hara in the Red Devils’ goal just before the break.

It was the very least Sunderland deserved for their efforts, although Nicky Butt’s Man United side made it more of a contest in the second period.

However, the young Black Cats wrapped up the win when Rees Greenwood did superbly well to set up Kirchhoff for the second.

The Black Cats featured Mika in goal, but the Portuguese shot-stopper was largely untested.

Manchester United: O’Hara, Poole, El Fitouri (Olosunde, 78), Tuanzebe, Williams, Goss, Kehinde (Mitchell, 66), Willock (Scott, 78), Redmond, Harrop, McTominay.

Not used: Moutha-Sebtaoui, Doughty

Sunderland: Mika, J Robson (Casey, 90), T Robson, Ledger, Brady, Greenwood (Molyneux, 87), Honeyman, Kirchhoff, Larsson, E Robson, Gooch (Maja, 81).

Not used: Stryjek, Asoro