Sunderland scored twice in injury time to seal a comeback victory thanks to Ross Stewart and Luke O’Nien and secured a place in the FA Cup fourth-round draw.
The home side got off to the better start in the first half, but it was Sunderland who dominated possession and should have led at the break. Matthew Pennington opened the scoring for the home team, Stewart was brought on for the latter stages and scored an injury time equaliser and Luke O’Nien sealed a dramatic comeback win for Sunderland with a great finish.
Sunderland returned to England’s iconic FA Cup against Steve Cotterill’s Shrewsbury Town looking to have a good run in this year’s cup.
Tony Mowbray made three changes to the side that drew to Blackpool with Alex Bass, Jewison Bennette, and Abdoullah Ba coming in for Anthony Patterson, Jack Clarke, and Ross Stewart.
The home side came out of the traps quickly, Sunderland were sloppy in possession and were struggling to deal with the pace of the hosts. Shrewsbury should have taken the lead within five minutes; Amad gave the ball away in a poor area and captain Luke Leahy’s brilliant chipped effort struck the bar.
Leahy came close again from a Shrewsbury corner; it was whipped in with pace and from six yards out Leahy couldn’t find the target.
Sunderland thought they had received a penalty after some lovely interplay by Amad and Patrick Roberts, the former Man City winger was clearly fouled, but the referee booked him for diving.
Bennette’s first involvement in the game was a good one, he beat his man for pace and floated in a dangerous ball that was met by Trai Hume whose deflected effort curled wide.
Sunderland were dominating possession, but almost shot themselves in the foot, Roberts’ slack pass left Christian Saydee through on goal, but his effort was poor and easy for Bass.
Edouard Michut was next to see a penalty waved away, he drove into the area beating a few men and looked to have been pushed but the referee said no.
With a few minutes left on the clock Sunderland were whiskers away from taking the lead; Michut did brilliantly to nip away from his man and lay it off to Roberts, but his effort from range trickled inches wide.
The half ended goalless, and despite a poor start to the half, Sunderland should have been ahead and were denied a clear penalty.
Sunderland had the first chance of the second half, Hume whipped in a lovely ball into the six-yard box, but no Sunderland player could get on the end of it.
The lads couldn’t find that final touch or pass to get a goal and brought on Ross Stewart and Jack Clarke to try and win the game. The pressure was ramping up as Clarke burst into the area and found Amad who saw his deflected effort go wide. Stewart almost made it five goals in as many games as he got on the end of a Hume cross, but it was well blocked by Marko Marosi.
Marosi was called into action again to deny Roberts’ effort from finding the far corner. Against all the odds the hosts took the lead, from a corner, Shrewsbury’s Matthew Pennington headed it home in the corner.
Sunderland had ten minutes to respond and brought on 15-year-old Chris Rigg for his debut and became Sunderland’s youngest ever outfield player. It looked like one of those days for the Black Cats, Roberts had an effort from range again saved by Marosi. Sunderland finally got the goal they needed and it was Ross Stewart on hand to head home from a Clarke corner.
Incredibly Sunderland won it with less than a minute of injury time on the clock, Amad found Luke O’Nien on the edge of the area who brilliantly swept it on the far corner for his first of the season.
Full Time: Shrewsbury Town 1-2 Sunderland
ALS Man of the Match: Luke O’Nien
Sunderland: Bass, Hume, Wright, Ballard, O'Nien, Neil, Michut (Rigg 82’), Ba (Stewart 59’), Roberts, Bennette (Clarke 59’), Amad
Subs Not Used: Carney, Patterson, Cotcher, Middlemas, Watson, Gooch
