Sunderland urged to avoid getting 'sucked into a fight' against heavy-punching Luton

Luton will 'out-punch' Sunderland if play-off semi-final is played on their terms, the Black Cats have been warned.

Tony Mowbray has urged his Sunderland players to not get ‘sucked into a fight’ at Luton, as it’s not one they can win.

Sunderland travel to Kenilworth Road with a slender 2-1 advantage from the first leg, but they know the job is far from done.

Luton finished three places and 11 points better off than Sunderland and they have done so by playing some quality football. They are also a big athletic team, which is a major advantage over Mowbray’s side who are missing just about all of their most physical players due to injury.

Sunderland, though, do hold the technical advantage, and Mowbray’s message to his players is to try to play the game on their own terms as much as possible.

"The difficulty of this match is the intensity, the importance, the urgency of it,” he said.

"There's a danger that you get sucked into a fight where you're probably going to get out-punched. So we have to stay calm, we have to play our game, play in the spaces, move the ball.

"We just have to play the way we know, really, and not allow ourselves to be distracted from that."

---

Read more Sunderland news

• Ten players you probably forgot played for Sunderland in League One
• Ex-Sunderland boss closes in on shock PL return
• Sunderland legend closes in on EFL job
• Sunderland linked with swoop for Eredivisie man
• FEATURE: 15 random former Sunderland players you probably didn't know still work in football
• FEATURE: 15 random former Sunderland players you probably didn't know still work in football
• Best Sunderland defensive partnerships: How do Dan Ballard and Danny Batth compare?
• Sunderland looking to poach Birmingham City ace