And the Nottingham Forest boss challenged his team to take that level of performance into the Championship for the rest of the campaign.

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Reflecting on a night when his side were four minutes away from the third round of the competition until Phil Bardsley's late equaliser, the Scot said: "I'm really disappointed because we went so close and I want to be angry at someone. But I can't be.

"I can't be angry at any member of my team because they gave me absolutely everything.

"We pushed Sunderland all the way to the brink and we should have held on at the end, but were caught out at the death and paid the price.

"But we can take a lot of encouragement from this and look to build on it.

"It is great that we've given a Premier League side a game and really asked questions of them.

"But any side can raise their game for a cup tie and the challenge for us now is to produce those standards week in, week out in the Championship.

"People ask me what my ambition is for this season and I say promotion – same as it was last season.

"I know it is an ambitious target and I know most people say you should just look to consolidate, but if we can have a half-decent run, then why not go for it?

"If we want to get anywhere near that position, though, we'll have to play regularly like the way we played against Sunderland."

Calderwood felt there were lessons to learn for his players from the experience, but he admitted that a lot of satisfaction could still be taken by the club in defeat.

"Firstly, you look at the downsides," he said. "We've done OK but we haven't seen the game out and that's very disappointing.

"We dipped just before the end and that cost us.

"We needed a wee bit of composure to see the ball out for a corner at the end, but we didn't and they got the goal.

"We should have stopped the ball coming in in the first place, but, even when it came in, I'm told there was a suspicion of offside – that's another issue altogether though.

"Bottom line is that we've lost the game and that's all there is to it.
"We gave a decent account of ourselves and that's quite pleasing. Our appetite was excellent and we pushed them close.

"Sunderland were shooting from distance towards the end, which was a sign they were starting to get concerned.

"They also made one or two decisions that let us off the hook on occasions.

"So it was quite a heroic effort from the players. They did themselves proud in every phase of the game, but they were running out of energy by the end of it and you could see that.

"It's a learning curve, though.

"Robert Earnshaw took his goal well but that was no surprise – he's scored a huge number of goals in this league and he's looked up to by the players.

"But it's not just about him.

"We have players like Matt Thornhill, who had an excellent game – an old head on a young body – someone who does things very simply but effectively.

"But he's one of a number of players coming through at the club. We hope and believe we have a good group of young players.
"We showed that against Sunderland in this game and we hope they will push on from here."