SAM ALLARDYCE believes that Sunderland’s latest defeat hurt the most since he took charge on Wearside.

The 1-0 loss to Southampton was Allardyce’s third at the Sunderland helm, with reverses to West Bromwich Albion and Everton sandwiching his only victory, the 3-0 home win over Newcastle United.

And this one – courtesy of a Dusan Tadic penalty after Yann M’Vila charged into Ryan Bertrand late on at the Stadium of Light – was the most chastening for Allardyce.

“It is because of the penalty, but I thought it was a bad one at West Brom when that goal went in,” said Allardyce when asked whether Saturday’s defeat was the worst of the lot. “It was one that should it have been avoided and it was certainly a free kick, but we think we should have had a penalty on Saturday.

“Yoshida’s arm, handball, hit him on the arm from Seb’s header, but I’m not so sure that Mike, the referee, was in the right position to give it, so we didn’t get that. We defended so well.

“I mean, I know we didn’t play well - it wasn’t very entertaining, what we saw on Saturday - and Southampton are a better side than us, but if you take the point and respect the point, like we should have done, then it’s one more point on our total and we move on.

“But another defeat makes you more desperate for the next game to try and get something and that’s what you’ve got to avoid.”

Meanwhile, Allardyce has admitted he is still finding his feet as Sunderland manager and is concerned that he may be overloading his squad with information.

The Dudley-born manager is renowned for his statistical approach to preparing his squad, but after a start that has yielded one win in four matches, Allardyce feels that too much, too soon, could be a dangerous tactic.

“I have to get the whole team better than what they are at the moment,” Allardyce said.

“I’m finding that difficult at the minute based on the disruption that we’ve been facing, the injuries, the suspensions, international weeks.

“It’s making life difficult for us. I can give the players too much information and it can be more harmful than not giving them any information at all, so I’ve got to be careful about not over-informing them about this, this and this. You’ve got to do it bit by bit, game by game, week by week.”

Allardyce explained his reasons for giving Duncan Watmore his first Premier League start for Sunderland in the 1-0 home defeat to Southampton.

The 21-year-old, who has linked up with England’s under-21 squad this week, has been an exciting player off the bench for the Black Cats this season but Allardyce entrusted him with a wide position in the 4-3-3 formation from the start against the Saints, and while he didn’t cause any problems for the visitors, Allardyce thinks Watmore is capable of being a dangerman for Sunderland.

“I think he’s got something in his make up that other players in the squad haven’t got because he likes to get behind defenders, he likes to try and get between them and in on goal and he’s scored a couple of goals when he’s come on as sub,” explained the manager. “I saw a couple of great runs at Everton and thought, well, let’s see it from the start. Let’s see what he’s got.

“But he didn’t get any chances on Saturday, there were one or two runs which picked up the fans that got us in the opposition’s final third, but then unfortunately he didn’t really produce any quality to cause Southampton any real problems.”

Republic of Ireland manager Martin O'Neill will assess John O'Shea's fitness tomorrow.

The Sunderland and Ireland skipper did not feature for the Black Cats on Saturday, but will be considered for the second leg of Ireland's European Championship play-off against Bosnia-Herzegovina on Monday, as he is suspended for Friday's first leg.

"[O'Shea is] not feeling too bad, but we'll see," said the former Black Cats manager. "I think he thought the Sunderland game at the weekend might have come a wee bit too early, but there are a few extra days and we'll see how he is by Wednesday."