Tony Mowbray explains his key Sunderland calls and reveals post-match message in verdict on Luton draw

Sunderland started sluggishly but were impressing when Carlton Morris put the hosts ahead against the run of play on the stroke of half time.

Mowbray's side fought back in the second half, with his attacking substitutions making a big difference on the afternoon Ellis Simms made a welcome return.

The head coach also brought Bailey Wright back in for an impressive first Championship start of the season.

"We're frustrated in the dressing room that we didn't go and win," Mowbray said.

"It's a fine balance for us today, between having the physicality we needed to compete and then getting your footballers off the pitch. To beat them you need to keep the ball off them, move it through their lines and get them turned. But if you're 3-0 down after 20 minutes because you can't win a header, people will rightly ask, 'what are you doing?!'

"We had to build what we wanted to into our game as we went along, and that's what happened. We got footballers desperate to play and full of energy on the pitch, and we managed to push them back and create some good chances

"We analyse every team to see their strengths and weaknesses, and this is a team that plays a lot of diagonals into your box.

"They'll work it up if you let them, but they will ultimately play a lot of diagonals. You need both centre-halves to be aerially strong, so I thought Bailey was the obvious choice.

"It's not that they're direct, booting goal kicks forward, but they will always threaten your box with the two strikers.

"I thought for 15 minutes we struggled a bit, we didn't deal with it well enough, but we got to grips with it. We had to make sure that the first pass, we picked it so we could get up the pitch rather than just giving it back to them, because that's how they build pressure on you and win games at this ground.

"Their goal is frustrating, I'm asking Danny Batth where he is and why he isn't killing that space at the front post but he says he's been dragged down onto his backside and that it's a foul."

Mowbray says his side should always be looking to win but was clearly satisfied with much of what his team produced.

He said: "I've tried to get the balance right in the dressing room there with the players.

"We're Sunderland and we want to win, we shouldn't get carried away with getting a point. We should always be disappointed not to win. But with total respect, with where we've come from... I've been coming here for four or five years and I know how tough it is.

"We're on the journey that they have been on. We ain't far away but we know that we're not the finished article by quite some way."