Sheehan thrilled to see Hylton back for Black Cats test

The 29-year-old, who has bagged 50 goals in just 90 appearances for Town, was missing from the side that lost 1-0 at Portsmouth on Saturday due to a one game ban for his red card picked up at Notts County on the final day of last campaign.

He is available to come back in against the Black Cats, who started their season with a last-gasp 2-1 win over Charlton, as Sheehan said: “We’ve got lot of strength in depth, but Danny Hylton would make any team stronger.

“Danny Hylton is the man really.

“No defence in League One is going to want to play against Hylts, he’s a nightmare to play against, as he’s a bundle of energy.

“The boys did really well, the two lads upfront, they filled in, but obviously Hylts is a huge player for us, there’s no getting around that.”

That view was echoed by Pelly-Ruddock Mpanzu, with the midfielder saying: “We’ve got four great strikers including El (Elliot Lee), he can play there as well, so Hylts coming back into the team is a big boost.

“He gets a lot of goals, he’s got to fight for his place like everyone else, but it’s a big boost.”

Although without Hylton, Luton drew a blank in their first game of the season at Fratton Park, it wasn’t for the want of trying, James Collins and Sheehan himself denied by the woodwork.

After scoring 94 goals on their way to automatic promotion last term, Sheehan was frustrated, but not overly worried by their inability to notch on the south coast.

He said: “It’s new for us, new not to score, but I suppose we can’t really get too disappointed as we’ve played one game.

“It would be worse coming away if we didn’t get a kick of the ball and we didn’t have any chances.

“But we’ve made chances, we’ve defended well for a large amount of the game and we’ve passed the ball. We’ve put our stamp on the match, it’s just disappointing we lost in the manner we did.”

Mpanzu added: “It’s hard, we’ve dominated, we just didn’t put the ball in the back of the net.

“We’ve got to take it in the next week, make sure we’re clinical enough in training and then hopefully prove it in the next game against Sunderland.

“They’re going to be a good side, they won (against Charlton), so we’ve got a point to prove and three points is what we need.”