Sunderland will be excited about what's happening at Exeter City right now | OneFootball

Timur Tuterov has enjoyed a blistering start to life at Exeter City and Sunderland will be delighted with his progress.

It's fair to say that Timur Tuterov has enjoyed a pretty good start to life at Exeter City.

The young Ukrainian joined the Grecians on loan until the end of the season from Sunderland on January 16th and was thrown straight into Gary Caldwell's squad the following day for the home visit of Stevenage.

Tuterov started on the bench but was introduced after an hour and was able to put the cherry on top of the cake thanks to a 98th minute goal in a 3-0 win for his new club, celebrating in front of jubilant home fans who have gone from fearing a relegation scrap to dreaming of a dart at the play-offs.

Exeter, now 11th in League One, and Tuterov are undefeated since his arrival, winning two and then drawing away at Reading on Tuesday night.

Other than that, err, slight blip against Manchester City in the FA Cup, Caldwell's crew have not lost since Boxing Day where they narrowly went down 1-0 to league leaders Cardiff City in south Wales.

Overall, City have lost just two of their last 10 League One games, racking up six victories since beating AFC Wimbledon at St James Park on December 9th.

Despite off-field worries about the club's finances, which are more that City don't have any money to spend rather than owing lots to anyone, life is good down in Devon's capital and Tuterov is already thriving.

Timur Tuterov has made great start at Exeter City

He followed up his debut goal with another in his second appearance in the 3-1 win away at rock-bottom Port Vale last weekend.

Caldwell again sprung the 20-year-old from the bench, and he had made it 3-0 to City four minutes after his introduction in the 55th minute.

At the time it looked like City would go on to add a fourth and a fifth, but it was Vale who scored next and, in the end, City were thankful for Tuterov's contribution that helped avoid a really nervy finish.

When the Ukraine youth international arrived at Exeter he promised pace, and we've certainly seen that in full effect, with both of his goals coming from low Jack Aitchison crosses to the far post where he's popped up to tap home from close range.

While he failed to score on Tuesday night, he did show a moment of class that, on another day, could have given the Grecians all three points as he pulled off a lovely flick to get past Ryan Nyambe on the half-way line as part of a quick counter after a corner for the home side deep in to stoppage time with the score at 2-2.

He set off toward the goal and was effectively through but, with over 40 yards of grass still to cover, Nyambe felt safe enough to deliberately haul him down and the referee obliged with a yellow card.

Timur Tuterov could have Premier League quality

Tuterov's flick was a delight and showed another glimpse that he could, in time, have the quality required to play in the Premier League.

Sunderland clearly think he's got a lot of potential and he's featured on the Black Cats' bench four times this season.

He's still waiting for his Premier League debut and he was effectively promoted with Sunderland depleted due to AFCON, but the overwhelming majority of pros never even get to a Premier League bench.

This loan to Exeter is a big step in his development, which has been limited to Sunderland's under 21s up until now.

He's scored nine in 13 for Sunderland's youth team this season and, with two goals in 96 minutes of EFL action so far, Sunderland could have a genuine first-team contender on their hands in a couple of seasons if all goes to plan for the pacy, exciting, Tuterov.