Shrewsbury boss 'lost for words' after late Sunderland comeback

Steve Cotterill felt Shrewsbury were badly done to in their FA Cup defeat to Sunderland.

Michael Graham | Jan 7, 2023

Shrewsbury boss 'lost for words' after late Sunderland comeback /

Shrewsbury boss Steve Cotterill said he was ‘lost for words’ after Sunderland beat his side in the FA Cup – and he did not feel his side deserved to lose.

Sunderland staged a late comeback, scoring two injury-time goals through Ross Stewart and Luke O’Nien after Matthew Pennington had appeared to have won it for the hosts with just ten minutes remaining.

However, the score does not reflect Sunderland’s dominance, with the Black Cats enjoying 63% possession and having 16 shots during the contest.

Cotterill, though, did not see it that way at all.

"I am really lost for words at the moment," Cotterill said after his side's 2-1 defeat. "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 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.

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"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."

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Published Jan 7, 2023

MICHAEL GRAHAM

Michael Graham is a professional sports writer with more than ten years of industry experience. After pursuing football writing by helping establish the Roker Report Sunderland AFC fansite, Michael moved to Planet Sport to cover football. Michael has since worked on many of the sports sites within the Planet Sport network, including Football365, TEAMtalk and Planet Football before leaving to join 90min. As well as football, Michael is an accomplished tennis writer and has been regularly featured on Tennishead, TennisBuzz and Tennis365. It is football that is his first love, though, with Sunderland AFC his particular passion. Contact: michael@buzzpublishing.co.uk