KENILWORTH Road offers a singular lack of comfort.

The entrance to the ground for visiting supporters is a turnstile set into a row of terraced houses. It is as if you will emerge into someone’s front room, but when you make your way through there is very little hospitality on offer. It is the same on the pitch. The Luton side is fashioned in the image of its manager, Nathan Jones, determined, persistent and combative to its core.

The task facing Sunderland on Saturday was not an easy one. First, there was Luton’s overall form. In recent weeks, Jones’ men have tapped into the insistent rhythm of last season’s charge into the Championship play-offs. That was supplemented by a need to recover face and faith following their humiliating 4-0 defeat to bitter local rivals Watford six days earlier.

It offered up the prospect of a difficult afternoon. So too did a barrage of balls into the Sunderland box – low balls, high balls, diagonal balls, all of them at pace – as well as fresh memories for Tony Mowbray’s side of conceding four times to Burnley amid a similar onslaught the week before.

To a man, though, Sunderland found the answer and offered up a performance that suggests Mowbray’s team is further along the journey of emulating sides like Luton than he previously believed. Not in style, maybe, but certainly in week in, week out consistency and character.

Mowbray himself gave a tactical masterclass, filling his starting XI with players able to combat Luton’s power and brute force, then introducing his flair players in the second half to exploit the spaces that were opening up.

His substitutes all caught the eye. Patrick Roberts enjoyed the freedom to run at the left side of the Luton defence. Edouard Michut galloped around the midfield, winning challenges then able to ease his way past Luton’s tiring midfielders. Elliot Embleton slipped in pass after pass to runners around him before connecting with the low volley from a Jack Clarke cross after 78 minutes that earned the visitors a deserved point.

Then there was Ellis Simms, who looked fully recovered from his toe injury and also refreshed as he occupied Luton’s central defenders so robustly, it created gaps for team-mates.

It wasn’t as if the starters hadn’t created chances. Leon Dajaku cut inside to send a 25th-minute shot against the base of the Luton post before Danny Batth struck the other upright with a header from an Alex Pritchard free-kick nine minutes later.

Amad Diallo saw his own free-kick dip over the wall and saved by Ethan Horvath in the Luton goal, again in the first half.

Diallo produced an astonishing display of tenacity, especially in the second half when his energy levels seemed to rise to meet those of the incoming Sunderland substitutes. Still just 20, how he focused his stamina was extraordinary.

His impact on the game even matched that of Clarke whose mazy dribbles almost brought a first half goal and kept Luton’s central defenders spread wide throughout the match.

Clarke had almost equalised moments before setting up Embleton, denied only by a wonderful block by Pelly-Ruddock Mpanzu.

For all the stellar performances going forward, Sunderland still found themselves behind at the worst possible moment.

They had survived a 19th-minute header from Alfie Doughty which careered back off the post, but Dennis Cirkin failed to prevent the winger cutting inside him as the game entered first-half injury time. Doughty’s low cross found Carlton Morris who won the sprint to the near post and guided the ball past Anthony Patterson.

Mowbray spoke afterwards about the Sunderland journey and playing catch-up with Luton who have built squad depth, experience and momentum steadily in their four seasons since promotion from League One.

In a division which has seen such flux so far, the manner of this draw shows there is no reason why the Sunderland journey should not be accelerated.