How Sunderland's challenging and then thrilling FA Cup afternoon underlined their progress

The conditions are horrendous, the pitch boggy, the rain driving and the wind swirling. The officiating has at times been borderline comical and well, Sunderland are losing.

This was rarely a happy hunting ground for the Black Cats in League One and 50 years on from their famous FA Cup triumph, their latest odyssey in this famous competition looked like it would evoke a more recent and inglorious period.

And yet. Even up until stoppage time began, there had been much about this performance that reminded you just how far this team has travelled in a short space of time. Tony Mowbray's were not at their best, and yet for the most part they were in almost complete control.

Having initially struggled with the physicality and direct approach of their opposition, Sunderland realised their best bet was simply not to let them have the ball. And so they didn't.

They passed and they probed, let down mainly by the lack of an obvious presence in the penalty box. Mowbray had understandably opted not to hand Ross Stewart another start and risk injury, and at half time his message was that he needed more of his players to take a gamble and break into the box. At full time, his message was that reinforcements are needed to ensure he's not put in that position in a league game.

Still Sunderland pushed, right up until the moment they fell behind against the run of play. A set piece goal always looked like this side's possible undoing, injuries meant that they had even less height than they often do. As Mowbray joked after, every time he looked up the opposition was bringing on another 6ft4 player. This was a numbers game his side was always at risk of losing.

In another sign that things are a little different these days - Mowbray's response was to introduce the youngest outfield player in the club's history. And the 15-year-old did well, more than playing his part in the deserved turnaround that would follow.

This is a team endearing itself to its support and the way in which they move the ball, the way Amad and Patrick Roberts team up down the right wing to thrilling effect, all this is only part of it. What they also have is a spirit and that's why even when Stewart towered superbly over his marker to level in the 92nd minute, they weren't yet done.

It was a goal that summed up their energy and their quality, a surging run from Dan Neil who had controlled the game from the base of midfield. The right pass from

Amad and then a superb finish from Luke O'Nien, who really had no right to be bursting onto the edge of the box after 94 minutes battling with Shrewsbury's forward line in defence.

And there we had it, a little sprinkling of FA Cup magic at the last.

Above all else, it was a deserved win for a side on an upward trajectory. Things are different around here these days - even when sometimes they can look the same.