Tony Mowbray insists Sunderland will not go to Luton to defend as the Black Cats prepare to take a lead into their Championship play-off semi-final second leg. Sunderland came from behind to win 2-1 at the Stadium of Light, giving them a crucial advantage to take to Kenilworth Road on Tuesday.
Elijah Adebayo gave the Hatters the lead early in the game, but Amad levelled before half-time and Trai Hume completed the turnaround just after the hour at the Stadium of Light. "Sitting here, I think we warranted the win," said Mowbray.
"We had enough opportunities, and it was ironic almost that we scored from two set-plays. Amad's goal was an amazing strike, it was similar to the goal they scored in the league match here - a corner they shifted inside to the corner of the box and hit.
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"And our winner ... we had worked on taking short corners, not putting it in the box straightaway where they have 6ft 5in centre-halves who are just going to head it out, so let's play it around the box and put flat balls into the box, and it's great when a plan comes together, really. I thought we competed really well.
"We've talked about being the youngest team in the league and the lack of physicality in the team but we competed really well all over the pitch, the fans rose to that and could see the team tackling and we were almost like snarling dogs in the midfield at times winning the ball. Nothing has been achieved, of course.
"No points played for tonight, we have to go to Luton and try to win the next game. We have to go and try and win, we won't be protecting anything, we won't be trying to slow the game down, we won't be putting loads of men at the back, we'll be playing our game and trying to win.
"I need to put on record how good a football team we played against - they are really good, really athletic, powerful, like comrades in arms. I could feel their togetherness. They fight for everything, so no-one is taking anything for granted.
"We have another huge fight on Tuesday and we need to bring our best performance. What we've got is some confidence going away from home, believing that we can win football matches and not have to sit in and hang on - we can score goals, if teams over-commit against us we can play through them or play round them.
"We'll go to Luton and hope we can do just that, but we know they are a very good team."
With injuries leaving Sunderland without a centre-forward or a specialist centre-back, it was a patched-up team that lined up against Luton. The back three consisted of two full-backs in the shape of Hume and Lynden Gooch, along with the versatile Luke O'Nien, and Luton's goal saw them capitalise on their height advantage at a corner.
Mowbray said: "Did it pan out how we thought it might? We lost a goal early on from a set-play, which we knew we were vulnerable from. I thought we had started really, really, bright before then. We had talked about a fast start, getting the crowd involved and engaged in the game and they were here to see their team try and win a football match and give ourselves a chance to get to Wembley.
"They scored from their first corner but, as you've seen many, many times, this team doesn't give in - it gets stronger and stronger as the game goes on. The back line was fantastic, to think of Gooch playing left centre-half - he's probably played everywhere for this club, hasn't he?
"Him, Trai, and Luke had really good composure, picked the right passes, didn't get flustered, got around each other and helped each other out."
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