West Ham United Under-18s have a long weekend away to look forward to as they seek to continue their perfect start to the 2011/12 FA Premier Academy League season.
The Hammers defeated Sheffield United 4-1 in their opening fixture at Little Heath on 20 August, with first-year scholars Elliot Lee and Kieran Sadlier bagging a hat-trick and goal respectively.
This weekend, West Ham's youngsters will travel to Sunderland for their second inter-group fixture hoping to make it two wins from two to start the new campaign.
Academy Director Tony Carr, Under-18s coach Nick Haycock and the squad will travel to the North East on Friday afternoon, staying overnight ahead of Saturday's 11am kick-off.
Carr is hoping Lee (pictured) can continue a run of form that has seen him score hat-tricks in his last two league outings - the 16-year-old also netted three times in West Ham's final game of last season at Chelsea.
"Elliot is a goal-scorer," he confirmed. "He has scored seven or eight goals in pre-season and scored a hat-trick against Sheffield United in our first league game.
"He is what he is, which is an excellent player. He's not ready for first-team level at this point. He's got to learn his trade at in the youth team and the development squad, get better and learn to become a better all-round player like all young players.
"One thing he will never lose is that knack of the art of scoring goals. If he keeps doing that, then the future looks bright for him."
Sunderland themselves also began their season with a success as Jordan Laidler's penalty earned the Black Cats a 1-0 victory at Crystal Palace.
West Ham are in Group A - one of four FA Premier Academy League divisions of ten teams each. Sunderland are in Group D.
Each club plays the nine other teams in their own group home and away, plus ten inter-group matches, completing a season of 28 league matches.