Sunderland feel confident they can score at Luton Town in tonight's Championship play-off semi-final second leg, according to Tony Mowbray - leaving the Hatters needing three goals to turn things around. The Black Cats hold a slender single-goal lead as they head to Kenilworth Road this evening, having come from behind to win the first leg 2-1 on Wearside at the weekend.
And if they can finish the job at Luton, they would book their place in the final at Wembley against either Middlesbrough or Coventry City a week on Saturday. Sunderland have spent half the season operating without a natural centre-forward, with star striker Ross Stewart out of action for almost three-quarters of the campaign while Ellis Simms was recalled by Everton at the turn of the year from his loan spell at the Stadium of Light.
That has meant Mowbray and his team have had to adapt, but it does not seem to have severely hampered them in the goalscoring stakes as their haul of 68 goals across the 46-game regular season was the fourth-highest in the Championship with only automatic promotion winners Burnley (87) and Sheffield United (73), along with Boro (84), finding the net more times. Not only that, but Sunderland go into tonight's game having scored in all but one of their last 31 games in all competitions dating back to early November.
