Proud Harford hails Town's players for Black Cats point

The Hatters legend, who was taking charge of the side after former manager Nathan Jones left to join Stoke City in the week, saw Town trailing at half time to Chris Maguire's strike.

However, they were level midway through the second period through James Collins' penalty, and although Danny Hylton was dismissed shortly afterwards, they held on for a well-deserved point.

Speaking afterwards, Harford said: "It was very, very eventful, and I’m proud of the players.

“The players were magnificent, they’ve just gone out there, played a style of football that for my opinion, and Sunderland was above the level, in terms of where we are, some exciting football.

“We could have been 3-0 up in the first 15, 20 minutes, as the keeper pulled off some magnificent saves.

"We took a bit of pressure, they scored a goal which disappointed us a bit, but we got to half time 1-0, we came out again, and in my opinion, dominated the game.

"We got our deserved goal, but overall the players, the lads who have been working with the staff, Kevin (Dearden), they’ve been amazing over the last four or five days in terms of what’s happened at the football club.

"But I just cannot say to you guys how proud I am of the players in terms of what they’ve done and what they’ve achieved today.

"37,000 people here and I think a lot of the supporters will go away and say Luton Town are a good football team.

“We’re a group, we’re a good group, they want to contribute, they’re good lads, they manage themselves basically.

"The team that went out there today, the senior player who know the routines of what we’re about, what we’re doing.

"So it’s been a whirlwind and we move on, the football club moves on and we’re just really looking forward to that challenge.

"If we put in performances like that, then we’ll definitely be challenging for promotion out of League One, I was so proud of them today."