SAM ALLARDYCE fears that the longer Sunderland remain deep in relegation trouble the more prone his players are to repeating the sort of errors which left them enduring an eighth defeat of the season.

The Black Cats are now in a 16-day window between matches and Allardyce is determined to come up with a solution to the team’s malaise before the trip to Crystal Palace on Monday, November 23.

Sunderland’s latest reversal arrived at the Stadium of Light on Saturday, when Dusan Tadic’s penalty 21 minutes from time proved the difference between the two sides. Tadic clinically converted the penalty but the manner of the way the spot-kick came about was what frustrated Allardyce.

They were doing a relatively decent job of keeping Southampton’s attacks at bay but then Yann M’Vila dived in needlessly on Ryan Bertrand and referee Mike Jones pointed to the spot, leaving Allardyce to turn around in dismay with his head in his hands on the sidelines.

He thinks Sunderland will continue to make errors if they fail to come up with a way to put a decent run together and climb away from the relegation zone.

“It’s all about keeping your decision making process in the right areas and I suppose the more and more pressure you put on yourself the more and more likely you are to make those silly mistakes,” said Allardyce.

“That’s something we’ve got to work at to try to avoid. I just felt comfortable when I saw Yann running out there, I just thought ‘this is going to be alright, there’s no threat here’ and then it was ‘oh ….

No, please, don’t go to ground’.

“And then you look at the referee and it sickens you even more when you see him pointing to the spot, but rightly so because it was a penalty. He didn’t need to do it. We have to try and cut those things out.

“We’ve got to keep working on making sure that we function as a team and we know what the basics are to work within the team to instil a bit more confidence, get us in possession better and relinquish a bit of that fear they seem to be playing with.

“On the training ground, I see them passing the ball, moving the ball, running in the areas very, very well indeed. There are talented, experienced players here at Premier League level and they’ve got to use that more than they are at the moment, without a doubt.”

Allardyce is only four matches in to his reign as Sunderland manager and has lost three of them, with the 3-0 victory over Newcastle at least providing some relief and joy, albeit briefly. The run means they are now four points adrift of safety and are the favourites to go down.

But Allardyce, who was enjoying a break in Spain after leaving West Ham at the end of last season, has no regrets.

He said: “I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. There’s no doubt about that. I’ve challenged myself. I could have been sat at home. I could have been relaxing in Dubai now if I’d wanted to, enjoying the sun, but I decided that the challenge was worth taking.

“I don’t feel that great at the moment, but I’ll pick myself up and come back refreshed with the rest of the staff and pick the lads up.

I’ll show them the areas where we have to get better and tell them, ‘this is what we have to do to improve, lads’ and hopefully, eventually, they’ll have some belief in themselves to go out and do it and get results. We have to do that, points-wise, as quickly as we can.”