Luton Town’s second-successive Championship play-off campaign begins with the semi-final first leg against Sunderland at the Stadium of Light on Saturday afternoon.
The Hatters go into the play-offs with a 14-game unbeaten streak, while the Black Cats claimed their top six spot on the final day to go nine games without defeat.
Rob Edwards said:
(Click HERE to watch Rob’s pre-match press conference in full)
“Really good, really excited, it's been a bit of a long time coming for us, we’ve known for a few weeks that we were going to be in the play-offs, we didn’t know who we were going to face, now we know, we’ve been able to have a good week’s preparation and we’re really looking forward to the game.
“Some of our lads have experienced the play-offs for, it’s hard as I don’t want to talk about the final yet as we’ve still got such a big job to do and we know how difficult a task it’s going to be, Sunderland over two legs, but it’s good to have some experience of it, I’ve been a part of it before and it was an amazing experience to be part of a success, it’s almost the best way to do it, through the play-offs, when you win, but obviously there’s three other teams that are going to be desperate to do it as well.”
The opposition:
Sunderland pipped Millwall to the last play-off spot on the final day of the season with a 3-0 win at Preston and come into the play-off semi-final nine games unbeaten.
The Black Cats have not lost since March and have found form at the right time, which contributed to them breaking into the top six.
Manchester United loanee Amad Diallo has scored 13 goals this season, including on the final day at Preston and against the Hatters in March.
Last time we met:
Luton Town had to share the points with Sunderland at the Stadium of Light last time we met back in March.
Alfie Doughty opened the scoring after half-time with a well-worked free kick before Diallo scored a late penalty.
Ticket information:
Our away allocation for this fixture is sold out. Thank you all for your support!
If you are not travelling to Sunderland, find out how you can watch this game at Kenilworth Road HERE.
How to follow:
- Text updates on the Match Centre
- Twitter and Facebook updates
- Listen live on iFollow Hatters
For supporters who want to watch or listen to all available iFollow matches this season and have access to exclusive content, including pre-match press conferences and player interviews, subscription details can be found HERE.
Selected international audiences will be able to watch the game live on iFollow with a match pass, these countries will be announced in due course.
Simon Pitts will be on iFollow Hatters commentary and audio match passes are available for every match for £2.50.
The officials:
Referee: Tim Robinson
Assistant Referees: Craig Taylor and George Byrne
Fourth Official: Andy Davies
The man in the middle at the Stadium of Light will be Tim Robinson.
He last took charge of a Hatters game when we visited Reading last month.
Robinson has taken charge of 40 games this season – 29 of which were in the Championship – handing out 158 yellow cards and 7 red cards.