We humbled the Premier League side to the point where their fans turned on manager Roy Keane, who, in his after-match comments, slated his players and his supporters but paid tribute to us.

He said: "It was one of my worst nights in my football career". When a lower-league side achieves this, it is usually due to incredible luck or the fielding of a weak team by their opposition, but neither was true on this occasion.

Many of their supporters had left in disgust after Luke Guttridge put us 2-0 ahead in the 80th minute, but sadly, our dream then wobbled when Anthony Stokes, a 78th-minute substitution for the home side, struck twice against the run of play to take it to extra time – the equaliser coming just 30 seconds from the final whistle (probably my fault, I'd got 50-1 on us winning 2-1).

We were fitter and more incisive even during the 30 minutes of extra-time, but could not score, then came the heartbreak of losing the penalty shoot-out.

The thought of what might-have-been will be in the heads of those of us who were there probably until our dying day; football is like that, cruel and entertaining all in one.

If we'd been a little less keen, and learned to play the clock down sensibly, we'd be in the draw for the next round of the Carling Cup – but, no matter: it was, even in cruel defeat, a wonderful evening for us all, with pride in Northampton Town Football Club being burnished to a sparkle.

All the Sunderland supporters to whom I spoke after the game simply could not believe we were a league one outfit, neither could they understand why we do not top the division.

It didn't help us that the penalty shoot-out was at the end populated by their supporters, a decision taken, I'm told, by the safety officer and police. Their 21,000 fans created a cacophony of sound to upset our penalty-takers, all grist to the mill in the learning process for our youngsters, and for our vital last penalty their 'keeper Marton Fulop danced up and down his line like a scalded cat, another bit of gamesmanship that worked.

These are lessons of experience for our side.

A lot of good comes out of this game because we showed the class which many knew was lurking within. Even without skipper Chris Doig and cup-tied loan striker Karl Hawley, we looked fit and competitive, got behind Sunderland's defence many times, created two wonderfully-taken goals, moved beautifully into space, and passed the ball with confidence and accuracy.

I still reckon we need a decent striker, but Leon Constantine's through ball to Colin Larkin after 20 minutes was a cracker, which Larkin buried in style while the huge travelling support from Northampton went delirious.

I'd have loved a photograph of Guttridge's face as he stood in front of our fans after scoring our second – he was in seventh heaven!

In the 20-minute spell when Sunderland's Premier League edge put pressure on our goal, the Cobblers' back-line threw bodies into heroic blocks and clearances, and then composed itself to play the ball neatly out through midfield.

If I tried to single out the special points of each of our players I'd need an extra page of this newspaper, suffice to say they were all a credit to us.

Chris Dunn was dropped in favour of Frank Fielding, obviously a hard decision for Gray but a correct one - Fielding was awesome - and for the future of Dunn, where too much may be expected too quickly, there's a chance to calmly progress his game and then come back to prove the quality we know he has.

His awful mistake when letting in a harmless low shot at Huddersfield last Saturday was probably what cost him.

Stuart Gray had obviously changed tactics following that debacle last Saturday at Huddersfield; it was one of the worst Cobblers' performances I'd seen in years and you can hardly believe the same club can put in two such contrasting displays, from pitiful to praiseworthy in the space of three days.