Luton Town 2-0 Sunderland (Agg 3-2): Hatters power through to play-off final

Tom Lockyer scores his 5th of the play for Luton - and 3rd successful their past 4 games

Luton Town are 1 triumph distant from returning to the apical formation of English shot for the archetypal clip since 1992 aft overturning a first-leg shortage to bushed Sunderland and scope the Championship play-off final.

Roared connected by a raucous location assemblage wrong their compact 118-year-old Kenilworth Road home, Luton should person made it 3 erstwhile keeper Anthony Patterson misdirected a clearance and Jordan Clark blazed wastefully over.

Sunderland stuck to their passing principles, but the lone superior prevention location keeper Ethan Horvath had to marque passim was from the caput of 1 of his ain players, Elijah Adebayo, erstwhile the people was 1-0.

Luton volition present look Middlesbrough oregon Coventry City - who play their 2nd limb connected Wednesday with the necktie level astatine 0-0 - astatine Wembley connected 27 May with a spot successful the Premier League astatine stake.

• Relive Tuesday's Championship play-off arsenic it happened
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Luton payment from aerial power

The 2 managers named the aforesaid XIs which started the archetypal leg, and Sunderland had reasons for optimism pursuing a 10-match unbeaten tally and the cognition that lone champions Burnley had prevented them scoring successful a league crippled since November.

Looking for back-to-back promotions aft coming up from League One via the play-offs past term, they had 2 punishment appeals turned down wrong the archetypal 12 minutes, with the referee ruling that Amad Diallo had tally into Marvelous Nakamba earlier tumbling to the crushed and Amari'I Bell's handball was unintentional.

In between, though, they fell down erstwhile Lockyer won a header from a country and the shot fell for Osho to crook it location for his 3rd extremity of the season.

Gabriel Osho reacted quickest to sidefoot the shot implicit the Sunderland line

Although the Wearsiders showed immoderate bully passes and question erstwhile they encroached into Luton's half, they were successful occupation virtually each clip a precocious shot came into their box.

Trai Hume cleared a Carlton Morris effort disconnected the enactment from Alfie Doughty's transverse but the shot rebounded backmost towards the extremity disconnected Pierre Ekwah and Luke O'Nien had to hack it distant to forestall an ain goal.

Morris went adjacent again with a header from Clark's free-kick which keeper Patterson pushed distant astatine afloat stretch, but was powerless seconds aboriginal arsenic Adebayo returned the shot into the container and Lockyer glanced it inches wide.

The unit was relentless and, aft his archetypal country was played backmost to him 2 minutes earlier half-time, Doughty produced an inviting inswinging transverse which Lockyer met with an unstoppable header.

Cook and Pleat ticker Hatters marque final

Luton finished 11 points wide of Sunderland successful the regular play and Doughty's dead-ball deliveries continued to origin panic successful the Black Cats' defence and Adebayo should person done amended erstwhile helium headed a country implicit from 5 yards.

The location enactment included ex-England cricket skipper Sir Alastair Cook and erstwhile Luton manager David Pleat, who led them to the second-tier rubric successful 1982 and is hoping to spot existent caput manager Rob Edwards adhd different promotion to his occurrence with Forest Green successful League Two a twelvemonth ago.

With the necktie slipping away, Sunderland pressed guardant and Patrick Roberts dragged a changeable wide earlier attempting a left-footed curler arsenic helium chopped successful from the right, again disconnected target.

Tony Mowbray was a subordinate of Ipswich's winning Championship play-off last squad successful 2000, but the Sunderland brag could lone ticker arsenic his broadside struggled successful vain to breach a committed Luton defence.

Patterson was sent into the Luton container for a country successful added clip but was stranded upfield arsenic Luton broke away. But alternatively of squaring for an casual tap-in, Cody Drameh enactment his side-footed effort into the side-netting.

It did not matter, however, arsenic the Hatters kept the doorway unopen to unafraid a travel to the nationalist stadium, having mislaid to Huddersfield astatine the semi-final signifier of the play-offs 12 months ago.