Aaron Connolly on the sensible reason behind muted celebration of his first Sunderland goal

Aaron Connolly revealed that relief was the overwhelming emotion as he opened his Sunderland account during Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Millwall.

The Ireland striker was convinced that he had secured all three points thanks to his 10th minute opener, only for the Lions to equalise three minutes into injury-time through Femi Azeez, who was assisted by Ireland Under-21 ace Aidomo Emakhu.

Connolly was off the pitch by that stage, having made his key contribution in only his second start for his new club.

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“It’s obviously disappointing conceding so late on, but listen, we gave it everything for 90-plus minutes and we’ve had a lot of changes in the line-up, but we fully expected to come and get three points,” he said.

“To concede so late is devastating. But it goes to show the squad that we have that any squad can go out, especially at a place like this, and Millwall are doing well this season, and we put on a performance like that.

“It was going to be tough, we were going to have spells, and I think we came out of those spells quite well, but it’s devastating to concede so late on.”

The former Brighton and Hull man was tempted to celebrate his goal by running the full length of the pitch to where the away fans were situated at The Den, but thought better of it.

Asked for his thoughts on his first goal, he said: “Obviously it was a lot of relief. I was about to run down towards the away end and I thought, it’s a bit far away, I need to save my energy here.

“But no, I think you could see how much relief there was. I just wanted to get that one. I said after the Preston game (a scoreless draw and Connolly’s first start), that’s what I can do, I can score goals.

“I want to contribute in any way I can. I would obviously like to have contributed to three points, but a point is a point and we are still right up there. So we’ve got to take the positives.”

Connolly hopes that his goalscoring performance at the weekend can lead to more starts, with games coming up against West Brom on Tuesday and Sheffield United next weekend.

And with more starts, he reckons he can hit the goal trail again. Last season he netted eight times for Hull in just 13 starts and 15 substitute appearances.

“I scored goals last year with limited starts, so hopefully I can do the same, maybe with more starts, who knows,” he said. “But I just want to score goals and contribute to points on the board for the team.

“I think that’s the main thing for everyone here and I think you saw it out there, everyone is ready. The squad depth that we have, and we have players to come back from suspension, it should be an exciting time.

“Obviously everyone is going to be a bit down maybe after (Saturday), I think everyone in the changing room is, because we wanted three points.

“But I think we’ve got to look at how positive the season has been so far. We are not losing those games, we are still picking up points.”

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