Sunderland boss reveals dressing room message ahead of Luton Town second leg

Tony Mowbray says his Sunderland team are determined to return to the Premier League but insists that the club are on the right road whatever happens at Kenilworth Road on Tuesday night.

Sunderland will take a one-goal advantage into the second leg after goals from Amad and Trai Hume helped them complete a superb comeback at the Stadium of Light on Saturday.

Mowbray has said that his players are taking great confidence from their impressive record on the road of late, both in terms of their results and their knack of finding a way to score goals.

However, he is under no illusions as to the size of the challenge awaiting them as injuries continue to bite - and says the club will keep driving forward whatever happens.

"What I know is that this club is Premier League in everything other than wherever we've been on the pitch in the years since it dropped down," Mowbray said on Monday.

"But you have to earn the right to get back there, you have to have a team that is good enough and no one is going to hand it to you. "The Stadium, the fans and the noise.... it's Premier League all day long. We collectively have to try and give them that back, but no one hands it you and every match is so tough. That's why we have to keep growing and developing. The objective this year was to sustain ourselves this season and make sure we weren't looking over our shoulder, and then use the transfer windows to add more and more quality.

"We want to keep recruiting well and then if it doesn't go our way Luton, the message will be that we're on the right road and going in the right direction. We'll keep trying to strengthen, keep trying to bring quality players into our system so that eventually we get to the point where the supporters aren't saying, 'it was a good season, we played nice football'. We want to get to a point where they look at our team and expect us to get promoted.

"It adds pressure as a coach but that's what we want."

Sunderland are facing an anxious wait to see if Alex Pritchard and Patrick Roberts are fit to take their place in the side for the second leg, but Mowbray says there will be confidence that his team can cope with what will be a hostile atmosphere.

"The team are in good spirits ahead of tomorrow, we believe we can compete with anyone in the league," Mowbray said.

"We're playing a team that finished third, who have had a fantastic season. They've been building this team for a few years and I've said before that you can feel their comradeship. They've got an experienced group of players. We did amazingly well to come out on top on Saturday and I'm not anticipating too much different on Saturday.

"We'll look forward to it, we'll go with confidence and enjoy the challenge of trying to play."