Steve Cotterill delivered this verdict on Sunderland's dramatic late winner against his Shrewsbury Town side

Sunderland had raced into an early 2-0 lead but Cotterill's side began to improve in the minutes before half time and for 20 minutes afterwards were utterly dominant, equalising thanks to goals from Josh Vela and Tom Flanagan.

Though the Black Cats were then the better side in the closing stages, it looked as if the visitors had done enough to earn a point when Jack Clarke swung in a late cross from deep on the left flank.

Cotterill admitted he was disappointed with the manner of that goal but said he was proud of his team's efforts.

“We did play well, especially in the second half when I thought we were really good and we were good after the first 20 minutes," he said.

"It took us 22 minutes to put together our first movement and it took us 26 minutes before we played with any arrogance on the ball, so that was the only disappointing bit for me and the goal in injury time.

"They [Sunderland] had a couple of opportunities when it got back to 2-2 where they got in and got the overloads and ended up flashing a few balls across the box and we didn’t want any of those to be an easy tap-in.

"We thought then if they cross the ball from deeper – which is how they scored the winning goal – we’d be okay, we didn’t think that’d be a goal we concede today.

"We’re normally very good at defending those, we’ve had long enough to look at it and I think Marko [Marosi] has shouted for it and I don’t know if that has put some hesitation in Tom [Flanagan] and Aaron [Pierre], but normally we would mop them up so we’re disappointed with those two aspects: the first 20 minutes of the game and the goal at the end there which is so cruel as we definitely deserved something out of that one today.

"After that, the lads won’t quite know the magnitude of that performance, all they’ll see today is the result, they’ll see we lost 3-2," he added.

"What they won’t know is what they’ve used and how well they’ve done to come back from 2-0 down, so there are a few lessons in there for them today but I can very rarely fault them and I can’t fault them today.

"Mix-ups in the box like that in front of 30,000 people are difficult because you don’t know if the defenders have heard him [Marko Marosi] shout for his ball. Should he have said it, shouldn’t he have said it, it’s irrelevant. I’m disappointed for the lads today.

The former Sunderland assistant manager also thanked those on Wearside for their good wishes after he fell seriously ill with COVID-19 last season.

Cotterill said: "I always get a really nice welcome when I come back here, I still get to see some familiar faces and everyone is always very good to me and obviously last time we were here, I had COVID, so a big thank you all the people who sent me good wishes, and there were a lot, and asked how I am today."