Robbie Stockdale admitted is was a bitter pill to swallow as he watched Sunderland exit the Checkatrade Trophy on penalties at Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Bright Enobakhare broke the deadlock inside 13 minutes when he waltzed his way into the box before Tom Beadling slammed home a sensational leveller four minutes later.
Beadling let fly from 25 yards and his thunderous strike rifled into the top corner to peg the hosts back.
Chances came and went for both sides with Vito Mannone proving to be the busier of the two stoppers. The Italian made a number of splendid stops to deny Will Randall and Enobakhare as penalties loomed at a frost-swept Molineux.
Wolves held their nerve in the penalty shootout to defeat the Black Cats, and speaking post-match Stockdale couldn’t hide his disappointment.
“At spells in the first half we played well,” he said. “We created some really good opportunities and got in behind time and time again.
“We scored a fantastic goal but just didn’t have the cutting edge at the final bit and we spoke about that at half time because we knew we needed to score again.
“In the second half we were pretty poor and they stifled our play because we didn’t play what we saw.
“To go out to a fellow academy team albeit a very good one is disappointing, but credit to Wolves they go through and we don’t - that’s cup football.”
