Sunderland host Luton in the Championship on Wednesday.

Luton Town manager Matt Bloomfield has hailed Sunderland as a “massive football club” heading into Wednesday evening’s Championship clash at the Stadium of Light, but has insisted that there has never been a “better time” to put to an end to the Hatters’ 52-year wait for a win on Wearside.

The Black Cats’ midweek visitors have not recorded a victory in the North East since September 1973, and currently find themselves in dire straits following a difficult first half of the campaign which has left them 23rd in the table, two points adrift of safety with 16 matches remaining.

And while both the form book and the league standings are against them, Bloomfield is still of the belief that Luton can take all three points against Sunderland. Speaking in a press conference, he said: “There’s never a better time. It’s a massive football club, I’ve had some great trips there over the years and records are there to be broken right? So let’s look forward to going there and doing our best to do that.”

One of the biggest problems Bloomfield inherited when he took charge of Luton last month was a dreadful run of away form, but while he is still awaiting his first win on the road, the Hatters boss is confident that performances are moving in the right direction.

He added: "If you look at it, there were five defeats in a row before we came, we get a draw in the first game. No clean sheet since November, we ticked that one off, no point on the road for 12 games, so we have to be pleased with the work we’re doing but go after more as I want to be winning games, that’s what we want to be doing.”

Addressing Sunderland’s own hopes for the clash, he said: “The expectation is on them to go and beat us because of where they are in the league. Everyone’s expecting us to get beat, but we got a good point away at Sheffield Wednesday and we believe in what we’re trying to do.

"Obviously Sunderland have got a very good team, a real high attacking threat, loads of pace. Any good team has goals and goal threats all over the pitch and they’ve got that. They’ve got good physicality about them, real good energy and intensity in their attacking play, but we believe we can cause them problems. We’re looking forward to seeing the work we’re doing and we believe we can go there and put on a good performance. If you don’t believe you can do it then you’re never going to go and achieve anything and we believe we can.”

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He continued: "We want to improve results, we want to improve performances, the lads are right on board with that. They understand there’s plenty of time for us to rest when the timing is right, and it wasn’t right, right now. We needed to work, we’ve got two really big, tough games coming up this week and what we tried to do is go after a block of work that will stand us in good stead for the rest of the season.”

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