The Holy Blues crashed out of the Emirates FA Cup in the first round on Sunday night as they fell to a 2-1 defeat against SkyBet League Two side Accrington Stanley.
Irish attacker Paddy Madden controversially put the Reds a goal up 29 minutes in as he was in the right place at the right time to tap home a cross from Tyler Walton on the right hand side, despite shouts of offside from the Trinity bench.
Substitute Sisa Tuntalwana equalised after he met Lewis Butroid’s free-kick with a bullet header that flew past Oliver Wright to send the game to extra-time.
However, it was in extra-time that the Holy Blues would eventually lose the game, with Charlie Caton turning home from close range to send Stanley through to the second round.
Despite the disappointing result, Trinity went toe-to-toe with a team 56 places above them in the English pyramid and Tuntulwana said: “I thought myself and the team played really well.
“It didn’t quite fall for us on a couple of occasions but we battled well and credit to ourselves, we can be proud of that performance.”
Trinity manager Russ Wilcox changed to a 3-5-2 at half-time to go for a more direct approach, which worked as they found a deserved equaliser with just under 15 minutes left of normal time.
When asked about the improved second half performance, Tuntulwana said: “Yeah we were more direct which we got a bit of joy from.
“We tried to put it on them as much as we could, we tried our best to pick up second balls we gave it all we’ve got.”
The 22-year-old had his moment of magic in the FA Cup, heading home in the 76th minute to bring his side level. On how he felt when he scored, Tuntulwana said: “It’s hard to describe.
“It was surreal, I closed my eyes to be fair so was surprised it went in! But yeah an amazing feeling.”
It’s almost full focus on the league now for Gainsborough as they face Rushall Olympic this Saturday at the KAL Group Stadium.
When asked what his expectations were in the Northern Premier League for the season, Tuntulwana said: “We’ve had two good cup runs these past few years so yeah we want to get into that top six and fight for play-offs and promotion.”