diff --git a/AUTHORS b/AUTHORS
index a6b845f72..b718b5918 100644
--- a/AUTHORS
+++ b/AUTHORS
@@ -46,6 +46,7 @@ Olivier Mengué <dolmen at cpan.org>
 Paul Bonser <misterpib at gmail.com>
 Peter Schultz <peter.schultz at classmarkets.com>
 Runrioter Wung <runrioter at gmail.com>
+Simon J Mudd <sjmudd at pobox.com>
 Soroush Pour <me at soroushjp.com>
 Stan Putrya <root.vagner at gmail.com>
 Stanley Gunawan <gunawan.stanley at gmail.com>
diff --git a/errors.go b/errors.go
index 857854e14..3520c6ee9 100644
--- a/errors.go
+++ b/errors.go
@@ -25,7 +25,6 @@ var (
 	ErrCleartextPassword = errors.New("this user requires clear text authentication. If you still want to use it, please add 'allowCleartextPasswords=1' to your DSN")
 	ErrNativePassword    = errors.New("this user requires mysql native password authentication.")
 	ErrOldPassword       = errors.New("this user requires old password authentication. If you still want to use it, please add 'allowOldPasswords=1' to your DSN. See also https://github.com/go-sql-driver/mysql/wiki/old_passwords")
-	ErrUnknownPlugin     = errors.New("this authentication plugin is not supported")
 	ErrOldProtocol       = errors.New("MySQL server does not support required protocol 41+")
 	ErrPktSync           = errors.New("commands out of sync. You can't run this command now")
 	ErrPktSyncMul        = errors.New("commands out of sync. Did you run multiple statements at once?")
@@ -33,6 +32,11 @@ var (
 	ErrBusyBuffer        = errors.New("busy buffer")
 )
 
+// ErrUnknownPlugin returns an error with the name of the plugin that is not supported
+func ErrUnknownPlugin(name string) error {
+	return fmt.Errorf("authentication plugin %q is not supported", name)
+}
+
 var errLog = Logger(log.New(os.Stderr, "[mysql] ", log.Ldate|log.Ltime|log.Lshortfile))
 
 // Logger is used to log critical error messages.
diff --git a/packets.go b/packets.go
index 41b4d3d55..1c5f974ac 100644
--- a/packets.go
+++ b/packets.go
@@ -496,7 +496,7 @@ func (mc *mysqlConn) readResultOK() ([]byte, error) {
 					// using mysql default authentication method
 					return cipher, ErrNativePassword
 				} else {
-					return cipher, ErrUnknownPlugin
+					return cipher, ErrUnknownPlugin(plugin)
 				}
 			} else {
 				// https://dev.mysql.com/doc/internals/en/connection-phase-packets.html#packet-Protocol::OldAuthSwitchRequest