Black Cats boss states Luton's 'direct' approach is not one he would 'ever want to play'

Sunderland boss Tony Mowbray stated Luton’s ‘direct’ approach to knocking the Black Cats out of the Championship play-offs with a 3-2 aggregate semi-final defeat last night is not a style he would ‘ever want to play’.

Following a 2-1 defeat at the Stadium of Light on Saturday, the Hatters went into the tie knowing just what they needed to do and in the tighter confines of Kenilworth Road, enjoyed a field day against the visitors’ makeshift defence, Carlton Morris and Elijah Adebayo causing all sorts of problems from minute one.

As it had done in Wearside, Luton’s first corner led to them taking the lead, Jordan Clark’s delivery cannoning off Tom Lockyer for Gabe Osho to sweep into the net.

A set-piece was the root of Town’s second as well, this time Alfie Doughty getting a second bite at the cherry to deliver, his inviting cross headed in by Lockyer for what proved to be the deciding goal.

Town had other chances too, a wonderfully worked move on the right seeing Morris clip wide, while after the break, Clark missed an open goal when picking up keeper Anthony Patterson’s terrible clearance.

Adebayo also was sent clear by a lovely Morris through ball, but didn’t pull the trigger, while Cody Drameh side-footed wide of an empty net too, so despite set-pieces being a huge part of Luton’s gameplan on the night, there were threats from plenty of other avenues too.

A disappointed Mowbray said: “I think overall, tonight we couldn’t really get them off our backs.

"It's a tight environment, you’ve literally got one yard on the touchline and then you’re in the crowd.

"It’s pretty intimidating for the players I think and we just struggled to get them off our backs.

"They play very, very direct, they've got two huge centre forwards, they boot it up there, and just push right in behind with lots of bodies.

"It’s hard to release the pressure really, so you have to give them credit.

“They play to their strengths, it’s not how we would ever want to play, but they finished third in the league, so we’re not the only team who’s suffered here by what they bring and what they do, so congratulations to them.”

Mowbray also went to discuss the injuries his team had suffered which robbed them of key defenders including Dan Ballard, Danny Batth and Dennis Cirkin for the two-legged affair.

He continued: “I’m proud over the whole piece of the team, how well they’ve done, in light of some pretty key footballers missing and three six foot three centre halves which would have helped us tonight immensely.

"We knew what was coming, we knew how they were going to play, get a ricochet, out for a corner kick and it’s in your net, it’s one-nil.

"They were only going to score from set-plays, corners, and we talked long and hard about trying to deny them opportunities to put the ball in our box.

"As when a big aggressive centre half or centre forward attacks the ball that’s flashing into your box, it’s really hard for a full back or a midfield player to actually get across him and jump above him and get it out.

"Whereas if Ballard, Batth, Aji (Alese) came on, Cirkin, these are players who can head the ball out for us and tonight it just caught us out a little bit.

"I still always believe we’re going to score, we didn’t score, we didn’t really have clear-cut chances.

"The boys in the dressing room are fuming as there was a penalty for handball, clear handball they all thought, but it doesn’t matter now.

"The season is finished, we have to rest up and go again.”

Luton boss Rob Edwards rejected any thoughts that his side simply set out to go long against their opponents, as he added: “It’s about us being good, it's not about us doing a job on Sunderland.

“We deserved to win the game, we were the better team, we had way more chances, way more pressure, the lads worked their socks off.

"We know what they’ve got, really good individual players that can take three people out of the game at any stage, but we limited them to shots from distance and one save that Ethan (Horvath) had in the whole 94 minutes plus.

"I think that shows you how well we played on the night.

“It could have been more, there was some good defending from them.

"A lot has been made of the physicality thing, they’ve got physical players, they’re just small, but physically they’re good.

"They're quick, they're strong, they fight, they defended really, really well, cleared a few things off the line, but it could have been more.”