Shrewsbury boss Steve Cotterill 'proud' of 'immense effort' in Sunderland defeat

Second-half substitute Ross Stewart's header in stoppage time looked to have sent the game to a replay in the northeast, after ruling out Matthew Pennington's earlier header for Town 10 minutes from time.

But Luke O'Nien's effort from outside the box in the 94th minute was enough to turn the game around and give the visitors the spoils which saw them progress to the fourth round of the competition.

Town defended well for long periods and prevented the visitors from having too many clear-cut chances, but their resistance was broken late on.

And Cotterill was proud of the way his team performed at the Meadow.

"I am really lost for words at the moment," the Town boss said about the game.

"I am really proud of the boys, I thought it was an immense effort.

"We definitely did not deserve to be beaten, and after 90 minutes we were in the fourth round.

"The boys were terrific today, I am really really pleased with them, I cannot speak highly enough of them.

"I thought it was an incredible debut by Killian Phillips, he was immense in there. And I am just so disappointed for them right now.

"I just said to them, they have nothing to be down about, they absolutely gave their all against a team that is flying high in the championship as well by the way at the moment.

"They are not down in the lower echelons of the league struggling or anything like that, they are a really good team, and they have some really good players, and for 90 minutes we thought we had done it.

"Unfortunately, there are four minutes of added-on time, I feel a bit speechless really."

Shrews had started the game brightly, and Luke Leahy hit the bar in the opening 10 minutes when Town pressed their opponents high.

But the visitors settled, and they began to get more control of the game, which is to be expected from the higher-ranked club.

Marko Marosi made a few important stops to keep it all square, but Town dealt with Sunderland's threat well.

They stuck to the task manfully, and Matthew Pennington popped up with his fifth goal of the season 10 minutes from time – getting on the end of Tom Bayliss' corner and heading past Sunderland keeper Alex Bass.

And Cotterill was pleased with the way his players executed their game plan.

He said: "The game plan went exactly like we thought it would, and the game went like we thought it would.

"We had to make sure we stayed in it for a long period of time, then we had spoken in the week about how we were going to make changes to try and zip things up a little bit with 70 minutes on the clock.

"We just ran out of legs or out of luck at the death.

"They have had to bring their big guns on, and they have already started with a few of them.

"I think it was an incredible effort by our lads."