Luton 1 Sunderland 1: Highlights as Elliot Embleton goal earns Cats a point after Carlton Morris opener
and live on Freeview channel 276
After a nervy start the Black Cats held their own in an even first half, but fell behind on the stroke of half-time.
Carlton Morris opened the scoring when he converted Alfie Doughty’s low cross, yet Sunderland responded after the break.
Elliot Embleton scored the equalised 12 minutes from time when he converted Jack Clarke’s low cross.
Here’s how the game played out:
RECAP: Luton 1 (Morris, 45) Sunderland 1 (Embleton, 78)
Key Events
- Sunderland XI: Patterson, O’Nien, Wright, Batth, Cirkin, Evans (Simms, 71), Neil (Michut, 60), Amad, Pritchard (Roberts, 60) , Clarke, Dajaku (Embleton, 60)
- Subs: Bass, Hume, Matete, Embleton, Michut, Roberts, Simms
- Luton XI: Horvath, Potts, Lockyer, Bree, Bell, Lansbury (Freeman, 30), Clark, Campbell (Cornick, 71), Doughty (Ruddock-Mpanzu, 71) , Adebayo (Jerome, 85), Morris (Bradley, 71)
- Subs: Isted, Bradley, Ruddock-Mpanzu, Berry, Cornick, Freeman, Jerome
It’s Matchday!
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of Sunderland’s Championship fixture against Luton Town.
The Black Cats will be hoping to bounce back following last weekend’s 4-2 defeat by Burnley, a result which means Tony Mowbray’s side have won just one of their last seven games.
We’ll have all the build-up ahead of today’s match at Kenilworth Road, as well as in-game analysis and post-match reaction.
Stick around and refresh the page for live updates.
Team news
We’ll start with the Sunderland team news.
Striker Ellis Simms has trained with the rest of the squad this week and looks set to return to the Black Cats squad at Kenilworth Road.
The striker has missed seven matches with a toe issue, while Sunderland have played without a recognised striker in recent matches.
Ross Stewart, Daniel Ballard and Aji Alese will remain sidelined until after the World Cup break, while Lynden Gooch has also been ruled out of Sunderland’s next four matches.
Patrick Roberts could return to the squad after missing the Burnley match with a hamstring issue.
Mowbray on Luton
Here’s what Mowbray had to say about today’s opponents:
“They are a real threat to anyone, particularly at home where they have taken some big scalps.
“Nathan Jones teams are always 100% maximum full throttle every game. You have to be ready for that sort of confrontation. I feel as if they are also really upgrading their group of players as well, I’ve felt that over the years I’ve been going with Blackburn
“We have to play our game and make sure they don’t turn it into a game that they may be physically better and stronger than us.
“We’ve got to make sure that with the ball we are very good and we give them problems.”
The inside track on Luton
Luton were on a seven-match unbeaten run before they were thrashed 4-0 by local rivals Watford last weekend, a result which saw them drop to ninth in the table.
To find out more we caught up with Luton reporter and podcaster James Cunliffe on the latest episode of The Roar Podcast.
Here’s what he said when asked about the side’s start to the season:
“It was going great until Sunday and then the wheels fell off in spectacular fashion against a team we didn’t want them to fall off against.
“I think Luton were second in the form table in the Championship and were seven unbeaten. Watford had lost three out of four.
“Everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong, a sickness bug, red card, depleted team and the heaviest defeat of the season against our arch-rivals.
“Prior to that we had been on a great run, winning two on the spin against Norwich and QPR and were up in the promotion places.
“Before the Watford game we were fifth and hadn’t lost to any of the top seven, and then Sunday happened.”
View from the Luton camp
Hatters boss Nathan Jones believes his squad are in a better place ahead today’s match against Sunderland.
Jones claimed Luton were decimated by a sickness bug ahead of their match against Watfor, with Henri Lansbury, Luke Berry and Dan Potts all unavailable. Captain Sonny Bradley was also replaced at half-time.
Speaking in his pre-match press conference on Thursday, Jones said: “Anyone that isn’t available today won’t play on Saturday, we can’t take that kind of risk. We have people back now, we have one or two back from injury so we’re in a stronger position.”
Luton will be backed by a sell-out crowd when they face Sunderland at Kenilworth Road, with Jones looking for a response following the Watford result.
“Everything we are about we didn’t do and that is really tough and hard to take,” he added. “I don’t mind talking about it because at the end of the day it becomes an elephant in the room.
“It is a performance we were apologetic for and a performance that we will be working extremely hard never to repeat, not just against Watford but against anyone. It was an inept performance and categorically different from the two which came before it, which resulted in six points.”
Predicted line-ups
Here are our predicted line-ups for today’s match:
Predicted Sunderland XI: Patterson, Hume, O’Nien, Batth, Cirkin, Evans, Neil, Roberts, Pritchard, Embleton, Clarke
Predicted Luton XI: Horvath, Potts, Lockyer, Bree, Bell, Doughty, Lansbury, Clark, Campbell, Adebayo, Morris
Nathan Jones in his pre-match programme notes
“We have lost just two of our last 12 matches and could go back up to fourth with a win.
“We know how tough a task that will be because Sunderland are a huge club with an excellent young team who have the momentum of winning promotion via the play-offs last season.”