Aaron Connolly was hailed as “a young lad with a big future” when he enjoyed a breakthrough performance at home to Tottenham.

The fifth anniversary of that golden afternoon will pass this weekend with the striker tackling a chance to re-ignite his career in the North East.

Saturday, October 5, 2019, will go down as the day the Seagulls scored their first home win under Graham Potter and Connolly scored his first two Premier League goals before being called into the senior Republic of Ireland squad that night.

A switch to Sunday afternoon has denied us an exact anniversary of that great day, one of the best the Amex has enjoyed in its 13 years.

Connolly’s career has not yet taken off in the way on thought it might that afternoon.

Now 24, he recently signed for Sunderland as a free agent but his debut is being kept on goals as he regains match fitness.

Having parted company with Hull City, he did not have a pre-season and is not expected to play until after the international break.

He has had a loan at Middlesbrough and a stint at Venezia failed to live up to his initial excitement.

It all feels a long time since that afternoon when he tucked away a rebound and then cut inside to curl a superb finish inside the far post against Spurs.

Kristjaan Speakman, Sunderland’s sporting director, said: “Aaron needs an opportunity to re-establish himself and to reset the perception of him as a professional athlete.

“It wasn’t long ago that he was scoring goals in the Premier League and playing for his national team, but he has suffered some setbacks “We all handle challenges differently and when it comes to responding, sometimes we don’t get it right immediately. At Sunderland, he will have the environment and support to perform and an opportunity to showcase his ability.

Head coach Regis Le Bris added: “I had a one-hour conversation with him and at the end it was clear that he was ready.

"He was very clear. Everything was on the table. It was clear to me that he has learned from these experiences.

“He talked about every subject. It was interesting."

Albion had Connolly and Neal Maupay, now of Marseille, up front that day and it was the latter who opened the scoring when Hugo Lloris fumbled a Pascal Gross cross.

Lloris suffered a bad arm injury in the incident and needed oxygen to help him cope with the pain as he was replaced by Paulo Gazzaniga, the current Girona goalkeeper you might have seen handing PSG a win in the Champions League recently.

Albion had Maty Ryan in goal with a back four of Martin Montoya, Adam Webster, Lewis Dunk and Dan Burn.

Dale Stephens and Steven Alzate, now up and running again at Hull, anchored midfield with Gross and Aaron Mooy marauding forward.

Gaetan Bong, Glenn Murray and Yves Bissouma went on as subs.

Tottenham has just lost 7-2 to Bayern Munich, piling pressure on boss Mauricio Pochettino.

Their back line was Moussa Sissoko, Toby Alderweireld, Jan Vertonghen and Ben Davies.

They had Eric Dier and Tanguy Ndombele as their midfield engine room.

A high-quality attacking unit featured Son Heung-min, Erik Lamela, Cristian Eriksen and Harry Kane.

Harry Winks and Lucas Moura went on as subs and the latter was denied by a couple of fine saves by Ryan in the closing stages.

As for the young man of the moment, Potter said of Connolly: “He has been knocking on the door.

“He has had some substitute appearances where he has been unlucky to score and he just gives us an extra dimension, to be honest.

“I’m delighted for him he is a young lad with a big future, but we are delighted we have got him with us.”