Luton hit by two FA charges following their play-off victory over Sunderland

Luton Town have been charged by the FA with two breaches of the rules during their Championship play-off semi-final second leg against Sunderland last season.

Early on in the contest at Kenilworth Road, which Town went on to win 2-0 and 3-2 on aggregate, a supporter was caught on camera striking the Black Cats’ on-loan Manchester United attacker Amad Diallo, and has since been hit with a lengthy ban by the club.

Fans also came on to pitch to celebrate at the full time whistle despite being warned not to, while, the Hatters have also been charged with failing to provide information about the events that took place, as a statement from the FA said: “We have charged Luton Town with breaches of FA Rules E21 and F2 in relation to their EFL Championship game against Sunderland on Tuesday 16 May.

“It’s alleged that the club failed to ensure their spectators and/or supporters – and anyone purporting to be their supporters or followers – conducted themselves in an orderly fashion, did not behave in a way which is improper, threatening, violent and/or provocative in the 14th minute, and did not encroach on to the pitch or commit any form of pitch incursion following the final whistle.

“It's further alleged that Luton Town failed to provide information, including written observations and video footage, that we requested as part of our investigation into these crowd control incidents.

“Luton Town have until Friday 21 July to provide their responses to these charges.”

Speaking after the game, CEO Gary Sweet had anticipated facing a penalty, as he said: “Of course we’re expecting some kind of repercussion, but it’s going to be impossible to stop a pitch invasion.

"Unless we have eight thousand stewards you’re not going to stop it, so our objective was to keep the away and home supporters apart, which we did, protect the players, which we did, and then just allow people to enjoy themselves without really trouble.

“So I think we ticked those boxes.

"They did come on, there was no trouble, there weren’t the scenes you saw in some grounds last year when some players were abused.

"There was quite a bit of respect between the two sets of fans, in some way it was quite good to see.

“It was our duty to try and stop people from coming on the pitch, which we did that before the game and during the game, so we did everything possible.”