The Town slipped to the bottom of the Championship and their wait for Matt Bloomfield’s first win in charge continued with defeat at Sunderland.

The Hatters almost fell behind after four minutes when Wilson Isidor sent a shot the wrong side of the post from 10 yards after being found by Patrick Roberts’ cross.

Six minutes later the Town needed Mark McGuinness’ defensive nous to bravely get in the way of a shot from Dan Neil from close range as the hosts pushed for an opener.

However, the home side – unbeaten at home this season – didn’t need to wait long for the lead as on 13 minutes Enzo Le Fee cut inside from the left flank and found the far corner of the net with a curling effort from the edge of the box.

Behind the Town rallied and on 32 minutes they came close to a leveller. Joe Johnson’s cross from the right was headed goalwards by Carlton Morris but Anthony Patterson in the Sunderland goal turned the ball onto the post.

Back came Sunderland and Thomas Kaminski needed to be alert to palm away a fierce drive from Chris Rigg moments later.

After the restart the Town came close once more when the ball fell at the feet of Zack Nelson on 49 minutes. However, the midfielder’s shot from 10 yards was blocked by Trai Hume.

But any hope of a Hatters comeback took a turn shortly before the hour when the hosts doubled their lead. Lamine Fanne’s attempted clearance to cut-out a cross from Le Fee fell invitingly at the feet of Isidor who swept a confident finish past Kaminski.

Bloomfield rang the changes, introducing four substitutes in the space of four minutes with Josh Bowler, Elijah Adebayo, Kal Naismith and Jacob Brown all sent on.

The woodwork saved the Town on 74 minutes when Roberts' shot came back off the upright before Brown wasn’t far away from reducing arrears, flashing a first-time effort just over the bar - but that was as good as it got for the Town in the second half.

Lasse Nordås was brought on for his debut with eight minutes to go but as time ticked down half chances fell for Sunderland as they looked for a late third, with Kaminski doing well to turn away a goal-bound flick from Jobe Bellingham with the faintest of fingertips with two minutes left.

That would prove to be the final chance as the Town slipped to another defeat on Wearside – not since 1973 have the Hatters tasted victory in this part of the world.

We’ll see you back at the Kenny on Saturday.

Town: Kaminski, Walters, Johnson, McGuinness, Andersen (sub Naismith 66), Lamine Fanne (sub Brown 62), Clark, Nelson, Alli (sub Bowler 62), Aasgaard (sub Nordås 82) Morris (sub Adebayo 66).

Subs not used: Krul, Nakamba, Hashioka.

Attendance: 37,929, including 370 backing the Hatters.