It's happened again - Sunderland's out of the Carling Cup after losing at the first hurdle to lower league opposition for the second successive season.

Darren Ward made his first start of the season as Craig Gordon was rested from the squad, while there were also first starts of the season for Russell Anderson and Grant Leadbitter. Our subs bench included young goalkeeper Trevor Carson and youth team left back Gavin Donoghue alongside summer signing Roy O'Donovan. Luton named former Sunderland midfielder Don Hutchison on their subs bench.

Luton gave us a scare in the seventh minute when veteran striker Paul Furlong failed to capitalise on a free header from Richard Jackson's cross, after Grant Leadbitter had previously seen a shot deflect harmlessly towards goalkeeper David Forde. The hosts looked the more comfortable of the two sides, and on the quarter hour mark, Luton took the lead, after Greg Halford gave away a cheap free kick on the edge of the area by fouling Dean Morgan. From that free kick, Darren Ward watched in horror as his wall crumbled in front of him, allowing David Bell to send his set piece past the Welsh international.

Daryl Murphy blazed a shot off target on 21 minutes as we tried to get back into the game, before Antony Stokes saw a shot deflect off of Chris Coyne and out for a corner. The Hatters could have extended their lead on the half hour mark when another free kick, this time just outside the area, beat the wall, but this time Paul Furlong was unable to send his effort on target. Dickson Etuhu was lucky to stay on the field after getting booked for a foul, shortly before he was caught shirt-pulling - an offence that would have gotten him booked at any other time, it would seem. That was Etuhu's fourth yellow of the season, and his fourth in as many games - a record that is not good news for the former Manchester City midfielder.

Luton doubled their advantage two minutes from half time, when Alan Goodall broke our weak offside trap, before passing the ball through to Paul Furlong to chip the ball over Darren Ward as things went from bad to worse for us. Anthony Stokes did hit the crossbar with a thunderous effort almost straight away, but the Lads went into the break two goals behind as bad memories of last year's cup exit to Bury were revisited.

Roy Keane made no changes at half time, and within moments of the restart, Halford gave away another needless free kick for a shove on a Luton player, with Halford also getting booked for his troubles as his shaky form continued. Sunderland showed little sign of improvement, and our dire night worsened on the hour mark, as Halford was shown a red card after getting a second booking of the night, this time for a needless handball.

Sunderland stalled from that point, with Ross Wallace putting a free kick just wide as Grant Leadbitter saw a shot well saved by Forde, before the visitors cracked in a third goal with 15 minutes to go, this time as Bell headed a free kick down towards Furlong, who had no problems finishing the job from close range. From there on, we continued our trend of being hopeless, as Luton ended the game ole'ing their own team... and just like at Wigan, when you're being ole'd by a team like Luton, you know it's been a bad day.

Sunderland: Ward, Halford (OFF 61), Nosworthy, Anderson, Wallace, Miller, Leadbitter, Etuhu (sub 62, Connolly), Murphy (sub 62, O Donovan), Chopra, Stokes (sub 78, Yorke). Subs: Carson, Donoghue.

Luton: Forde, Goodall, Perry, Coyne, Jackson (sub 35, Keane), Bell, Robinson, Spring, Morgan (sub 70, McVeigh), Talbot, Furlong. Subs: McVeigh, Brkovic, Andrew, Hutchison.