Sunderland 2 Luton 1: Highlights as Trai Hume and Amad Diallo goals give Cats lead in play-off semi-final

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of Sunderland’s Championship play-off semi-final first leg against Luton Town.

A sell-out crowd is set to attend the match at the Stadium of Light, with the Black Cats aiming for back-to-back promotions.

We’ll have live updates, analysis, reaction and more throughout the day.

Stick around and refresh the page as Tony Mowbray’s side look to gain a first leg advantage.

Sunderland have more injury concerns following Monday’s 3-0 win at Preston, when Dennis Cirkin and Lynden Gooch were forced off.

Both missed training sessions earlier this week and will have to be assessed for today’s match.

The fixture will come too soon for Dan Ballard (hamstring), while Aji Alese is unlikely to be risked during the play-offs following a thigh issue.

Ross Stewart, Corry Evans, Elliot Embleton, Danny Batth and Jewison Bennette all remain sidelined.

Luton are on a 14-match unbeaten run coming into the tie and secured their place in the play-offs with three games to spare – finishing third in the table.

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 side’s main strengths

“The defence has been amazing recently. They have been 14 unbeaten, it’s only one defeat in 20 and that was against Burnley which was a late penalty.

“They have kept so many clean sheets this season, 20 now for the season, and been really hard to score against.

“From open play I think they’ve only conceded three goals in that time, one of those was a goalkeeping error and one of those was an offside goal.

“They have been really hard to score against and scored goals at the other end. Carlton Morris is on 20 goals for the season and Elijah Adebayo has popped up with goals.”

Here’s what Sunderland boss Tony Mowbray has had to say about today’s match:

“I think it’s going to be a tight game. They’re 14 unbeaten and we’ve gone nine unbeaten, five draws and four wins.

“The Stadium of Light will be bouncing. We’ve got to try and create an environment which is uncomfortable for Luton and sometimes coming into a big environment it can help some teams.

“We aren’t talking about a team of shrinking violets - they’re a very robust, strong, physical team.

“They finished 11 points in front of us so they’ll come with a level of confidence.

“It’s sometimes easy to have a narrative of ‘little Luton’ but there they were in the Play-Offs last season. They have the experience of the play-offs, they’ll be disappointed they didn’t get through last year and they’ll be trying to put it right this year.”

And here’s what Luton boss Rob Edwards had to say about Sunderland:

“They’re good going forward, they are risk free, they’ll go for it and look to attack.

“We’re going to have to make sure we defend well and then try and take the most of any chances that we can.

“We knew it was going to be difficult, a big, big stadium, big football club

“Tony’s done really well, lots of good individual players.

“We want to make sure that we’re well in the tie coming back here on Tuesday.”

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

Predicted Sunderland XI: Patterson, Gooch, Hume, O’Nien, Cirkin, Neil, Ekwah, Roberts, Amad, Clarke, Gelhardt

Predicted Luton XI: Horvath, Bradley, Lockyer, Bell, Drameh, Nakamba, Mpanzu, Campbell, Doughty, Morris, Adebayo

“I’m delighted for the club and delighted for the players - they’re a great group of lads who’ve worked extremely hard, but we know there’s still more work to be done.

“It’s been a rollercoaster of a season - to finish the regular campaign unbeaten in nine and finish inside the top six shows how far we have come.

“The togetherness of the players and supporters has been crucial home and away, and we’ll need you all again during both legs of the semi-final.

“The noise over five thousand of you made at Deepdale was incredible and the players are ready to go at a sold-out Stadium of Light – it’s your support that drives us on.

“We’re really looking forward to the tie – we believe that when we play to our maximum, we can beat anyone in this league.

“Luton are a quality team who give everything in every game, but we’ll be ready for the challenge.

“I hope it’s a special afternoon for the club and we’re going to give it our all.”