Shrewsbury Town 1-2 Sunderland: Late comeback sends Black Cats into FA Cup fourth round
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Late comeback sends Sunderland through in FA Cup
Championship club Sunderland scored twice in stoppage time to reach the FA Cup fourth round at the expense of League One side Shrewsbury Town.
Matthew Pennington nodded in a right-wing corner 10 minutes before full-time to put Shrewsbury in front.
Ross Stewart, on as a second-half substitute, netted Sunderland's equaliser and Luke O'Nien swept in the Black Cats' winner from 18 yards.
Midfielder Chris Rigg, 15, came on for Sunderland in the closing minutes.
He became the second youngest player ever to appear for their first team and helped Sunderland complete their sensational comeback in the driving rain in Shropshire.
Defeat, especially the manner of it, was cruel on Shrewsbury, who were within a couple of minutes of reaching round four for the third time in five seasons.
Captain Luke Leahy had hit the crossbar with a wonderful lob from outside the penalty area in the early stages for Town, who were appearing in the third round for the sixth successive season.
Sunderland recovered from their slow start and went close through Trai Hume, top scorer Stewart and Patrick Roberts on two occasions, with home goalkeeper Marko Marosi and his team holding firm.
Pennington was sent off in Shrewsbury's League One loss at Fleetwood on 1 January, but his red card was later rescinded which allowed him to play against the Black Cats - and he looked like being an unlikely match-winner for Steve Cotterill's side.
However, the visitors - eighth in the Championship - struck late to reach the fourth round for the first time since the 2014-15 season.
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Shrewsbury manager Steve Cotterill told BBC Radio Shropshire:
"It is (tough to take) because after 90 minutes we're in the fourth round. I'm really lost for words at the moment, I'm really proud of the boys because it was an immense effort.
"The game plan went exactly like we thought it would, we had to make sure we stayed in it for a long period of time, and we spoke in the week that we would make changes to try to zip things up a bit with 70 minutes on the clock.
"I think we just ran out of legs or ran out of luck just at the death. It was an incredible effort by our lads, we definitely don't deserve to be beaten."
Sunderland manager Tony Mowbray told BBC Radio Newcastle:
"I don't feel relief, I feel as if it was the right result.
"The first 20 minutes was a bit end-to end, we had to deal with their directness and we didn't deal with it probably as I would have liked.
"But we got a grip of the game and I think the last 25 minutes of the first half we were in control, and just about all of the second half we were in control.
"I think we got what we deserved in the end, but it was a strange way to go about it."