Sunderland 1 Luton Town 1: Highlights as Amad Diallo penalty earns Cats a draw after Alfie Doughty goal

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of Sunderland’s Championship fixture against Luton.

Tony Mowbray’s side will be looking to bounce back following Wednesday’s 2-1 defeat against Sheffield United, ahead of March’s international break.

We’ll have all the build-up from the Stadium of Light, as well as in-game analysis and post-match reaction.

Stick around and refresh the page for live updates throughout the day.

We’ll start with the Sunderland team news.

Manchester United loanee Amad could return to the squad after missing the side’s last two matches with a hamstring issue.

Mowbray also confirmed on Friday that Luke O’Nien should be fit for today’s match after hobbling off with a minor injury against Sheffield United on Wednesday.

The Sunderland head coach has hinted that he is facing some fresh minor injury concerns, though, while Dennis Cirkin has been sidelined in recent weeks after suffering a concussion.

Ross Stewart, Corry Evans, Elliot Embleton and Aji Alese remain out with long-term setbacks.

Luton have climbed to fourth in the table following three successive wins and have the third best defensive record in the Championship.

To find out more, we caught up with Mike Simmonds from our sister title Luton Today on the latest episode of The Roar Podcast.

You can listen to the full episode here

Here’s what he said when asked about The Hatters’ key players:

“Carlton Morris has been fantastic and is up to 16 goals for the season now. In Luton’s last four wins he’s scored the winner in all of them and him and Elijah Adebayo are a really good front two.

“Morris can score any kind of goal and Adebayo’s workrate has picked up even more since Edwards has come in, he’s looking really good.

“Both wing-backs Drameh and Alfie Doughty are definitely ones to watch out for and if Jordan Clark plays he’s a big player, as is Allan Campbell, and Tom Lockyer at the back as well.

“It’s not really one or two players, the whole team is playing really, really well.”

“I would say Luton have found a way to win football matches recently, I think three 1-0s on the bounce.

“Defensively they are very, very solid, very strong, very powerful and physical at the top end of the pitch. I think they have got along with Burnley the best away record in the league so they make life really difficult.

“They get the ball up pretty quickly to two big strikers, they are athletic, they are strong. It’s a big challenge for us.”

Luton defender Amari’i Bell is a doubt for today’s match after picking up an injury in Luton’s 1-0 win over Bristol City earlier this week.

Midfielder Jordan Clark has a chance of being available though after missing the last two matches, with Hatters’ boss Rob Edwards saying: “Potentially, he’s getting close.”

Luton will be without midfielder Pelly-Ruddock Mpanzu who picked up an injury against Sheffield United last weekend.

Here are our predicted line-ups for today’s match:

Predicted Sunderland XI: Patterson, Gooch, Ballard, Batth, O’Nien, Neil, Michut, Clarke, Pritchard, Roberts, Gelhardt

Predicted Luton XI: Horvath, Drameh, Osho, Lockyer, Bell, Doughty, Nakamba, Campbell, Clark, Adebayo, Morris

“Looking back at Wednesday’s narrow defeat against Sheffield United, I thought that on the balance of play we deserved more from the game.

“The winning goal was a tough one to take, but the players rallied and we had a number of chances to claim a point.

“Patrick Roberts hit the post, their ‘keeper made a great save from Jack Clarke and unfortunately we couldn’t find the equaliser.

“I was delighted for Edouard Michut to score his first professional goal, it was a great finish – he’s growing as a player and will only get better.

“We see his finishing technique in training every day, so it was great to see him take that into a game.”

So Sunderland are unchanged following Wednesday’s match against Sheffield United.

Luke O’Nien is passed fit and keeps his place at left-back, despite hobbling off with a knock in midweek.

Amad is back on the bench in place of Joe Anderson, who has dropped out of the squad.

Luton are unchanged following their 1-0 win over Bristol City on Wednesday.

As they have done in their last two matches, Sunderland have started with Ba up alongside Gelhardt in what looks like a flewable 4-4-.

Luton have started with a back three and wing-backs and have just registered the first shot of the match with Adebayo forcing a low save from Patterson which was comfortable for the keeper.

Ba has started to drop a bit deeper in more of a No 10 role and managed to drive forward with the ball there.

The Frenchman set up Clarke on the left, before the winger cut inside and forced a low save from Horvath, which the keeper held comfortably.

Luton’s wing-backs are taking up advanced positions when the visitors are in possession, especially Doughty on the left.

The wing-back just received the ball on the flank there but his cross was held by Patterson.

Sunderland looked to be in trouble there as Bell stepped out of Luton’s back three, played a one-two with Morris, and advanced into the hosts’ box.

The defender then skewed his shot off target when under pressure from O’Nien.