Manchester United boss David Moyes admitted his side deserved to crash out of the Capital One Cup at the hands of relegation-threatened Sunderland.
United looked set to edge past the Black Cats courtesy of an away goal scored at the Stadium of Light a fortnight ago.
But with the clock ticking down on extra-time David De Gea allowed Phil Bardsley's tame effort to slip past him and into the net.
"David's been really good this season," the Scot told Sky Sports News.
"Keepers do make mistakes but it was a costly one, with a minute to go, but that happens in football."
Despite Javier Hernadez's hasty reply forcing a penalty shoot-out, Sunderland still triumphed, sending the 9,000-strong travelling support into raptures.
Captain Darren Fletcher was United's only scorer from five attempts in the shoot-out, with Danny Welbeck and Phil Jones blazing over and Adnan Januzaj, like Rafael, denied by Vito Mannone.
Moyes said: "That was really poor, I would expect better, but again those things do happen."
He admitted Sunderland deserved their win, and added: "We gave ourselves a chance, got it to penalties, but we didn't really deserve it tonight with how we played.
"When we did get the moments and had chances to get the second goal, we made the wrong choices or didn't finish it off."
Hernandez was guilty of the worst of those misses, curling wide after being sent clear by the impressive Januzaj in extra time.
