Luton Town v Sunderland 11/8

[Kenneth E End]

What a game this will be - a complete sell out in both home and away areas. The last time these two sides met in the league was in 2007! That day the visitors ran out 5-0 winners under Roy Keane, sealing their Championship win, promoting them to the Premier League. That game was marred by 100s of Sunderland fans sold tickets by the club and it’s season ticket holders, in the home end causing havoc, including one directly in front of me.

Again it seems like both teams have come full circle, both clubs having ups and downs and more downs.

Sunderland naturally have had a huge turnover of players - I guess Jack Ross still hasn’t a clue of his strongest side. They’ll be very strong nonetheless. Whereas Luton’s side is relatively settled; it can be strengthened this week with the return of Danny Hylton, who has scored 50 goals in 2 seasons. I expect Luton’s side to remain the same with the exception of Hylton coming in for Cornick.

Again, like last week if we can get at least a draw I’ll be happy. Even if we get 3 points from our first 3 games I’ll be happy (which in most cases sounds crap, but testiment to our start).

 

[B13EEV]

i'm confident about this game.
I think Luton to win 2-0

COYH!!!

 

[Gaz12321]

Solid performance last week even though the result wasn't positive, hopefully we'll cause Sunderland problems as their new look side finds it's feet. It's quite possibly the best time to play them really.

Hylton's return should give us something extra in front of goal which we were lacking against Pompey.

 

[ThisTinpotLeague]

Hoping for a Luton win here to get everyone's hopes up that Sunderland won't piss this league

 

[BelizeHatter]

Back to back exciting tests against huge clubs. Let's see where we are.

 

[Maple Hatter]

Looking forward to this game. A sell out Kenny which you'd expect for a game like this. As with the game v Portsmouth this is a difficult one to call. Hoping we produce the same display we did in the opening game but with a bit more luck in front of goal. We need to put pressure on Sunderland from the off and impose our passing game and fast movement. Should we manage that the fans will do the rest. A rocking Kenny on games like this can be worth a goal. As for Sunderland I have no idea what to expect. A club with big expectation and one which everyone will be looking to beat. Happy to be playing them so early in the season. Our players will be desperate to win this after last weeks disappointment. I think they could well do it.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Probably best to get this game out of the way early on and hope Sunderland are still adjusting to their new surroundings.

We played really well at Portsmouth just missing that last bit of cutting edge and perhaps some luck too. With Hylton coming back in maybe we can turn that back in our favour.

Id take a point really just to get off the mark and the next game at Peterborough doesnt look any easier at all with the signings they have made over the summer. Need to get this tricky start out of the way without having confidence damaged too much.

Can see us starting fast getting on top, perhaps even getting a goal with excitement and energy of the occasion before Sunderland show there quality and running out winners so predicting a 3-1 win for Sunderland.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Kind of surprising team in that JJ is replaced by Jack stacey. Don’t think that’s entirely deserved as JJ was great last week I thought.

Becoming quite apparent that Jones simply rates Stacey far better than Justin which is something of a shame.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Sunderland were today a significant step in quality from anything we have faced in the league in a long old while. Moved the ball nicely and I felt well worth there 1 goal lead at half time. Really nice goal from them, cut us open really well and a composed finish from the striker (hope Harry Cornick was taking notes as similar to his miss last week!)

We dug in and I think just about deserved that point in the end, might even had nicked it if Hylton had finished pretty much the one glorious chance he had but that would have been pretty harsh on Sunderland.

We did lack a bit of quality I thought in creating chances, many times got into very good positions in the final 3rd and butchered it with a poorly placed pass or poor touches. Can’t really do that against that level of opposition. Found the Grant substitution a little odd as Lee was chief amongst those butchering counter attacks, would have had Lee replaced and Grant switch position with him as the the 10 as felt Grant was providing a little more quality and more influential as the game went on.

 

[BelizeHatter]

Nothing more needed. As above

 

[Kenneth E End]

Quite a niggly game I thought today - 33 fouls between both sides; not many could be argued about.

I thought we did OK in the second half and the first half of the first; we lost our shape badly and culminated in a deserved first half lead for Sunderland.

Got on the front foot in the second half but never really made too many clear cut opportunities. Actually, to be fair, Stech wasn't overly tested either. We've conceded twice this season, but both Portsmouth and Sunderland have only had 3 shots on target between them. I think that's testament to our defensive work.

Sunderland are actually a bloody good side, with players in the hutch that are still to come back. I'd be surprised if they don't win the League this season. They've got a lot of quality there and most are still getting to know each other. I think the only thing that could stop them is Luton Conference syndrome - fans getting on the team's back, getting frustrated they're not rolling teams over. Today was a good point for both teams IMO.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

It was a rather niggly game I felt too. A number of cynical fouls on both sides to stop and break up counter attacks as well, The game was largely played in the middle 3rd and quite congested at times I’d say, so you can understand to an extent.

Thought they could have had a penalty in the first half when their player got dragged down just as they were shooting, and one foul on Pelly in the second half was almost worthy of a red I thought with how violently he was clattered when bursting through.

 

[Maple Hatter]

A well deserved point and about the right result.Thought we were OK first half but lacked that final ball. The service to the front men improved second half and we created a few decent chances. Shame that Hylton missed that chance at a very crucial time. Was on his own with time to control the ball but went for the header which he knew immediately was the wrong decision. Sunderland are a decent side with quality players but so they should have with the financial resources they have. They lacked the killer touch today I thought but showed enough to suggest they will be right up there if their fans don't go into meltdown everytime they drop a point.
We will continue to improve and hopefully start to put some of those chances away. 1 point from 6 doesn't sound like a good start but we have played two of the promotion favourites and performance wise have more than matched them.

 

[Craig]

Good result for Sunderland.