A CANDID Ross Wallace has admitted that Sunderland's abject away form has become a cause of considerable concern.

The Black Cats travel to Reading tomorrow still searching for a first Premier League away win, and hoping to end a run of five successive away defeats that stretches back to mid-September.

The club's recent away performances have veered from the good (West Ham) to the bad (Chelsea) to the ugly (Everton), but a failure to claim a point has been a common denominator.

Wallace is confident that the Wearsiders are capable of stopping the rot, provided they produce a brighter beginning than the stuttering starts which have hampered them in recent away matches.

Sunderland have scored in the opening 20 minutes of just one of their nine away games this season, a record that has seen them floundering on the back foot on repeated occasions.

"The away form is a concern," said Wallace, who impressed in an unorthodox right-midfield berth in last weekend's 1-1 draw with Aston Villa. "We haven't won a game away from home yet and that's something we need to address quickly.

"It's hard to explain, but I don't think we've been helping ourselves recently because we haven't really been getting out of the traps in our away games.

"We haven't been getting on to the front foot in the early stages, and that's something we have to put right.

"Hopefully, we just need one away performance to set the ball rolling and then you might see a run of decent results on the road."

With away games at Reading and Blackburn sandwiching home matches with Manchester United and Bolton, Sunderland's festive fixture list contains a bit of everything.

Roy Keane's side go into the Christmas schedule just one point above the drop zone, and Wallace admits that the omens will hardly be positive if they are no better positioned by the time Wigan visit the Stadium of Light for an FA Cup third-round tie on January 5.

"The Christmas period is always massive," said the Scotsman. "But this year it looks like being especially important to us. By the middle of January, the league table is going to be pretty much clear.

"Wherever you are at that stage is normally where you're going to be ending up at the end of the season, so between now and then we have to make sure that we climb up the table.

"But having said that, I think everyone's very confident about the second half of the season. I certainly don't see anyone with their heads down. It's a good bunch of lads and we're all determined to make a success of things."

The mood would be even more positive if Sunderland were to complete a notable double over Reading at the Madejski Stadium, and while the club's last away game at Chelsea saw Keane adopt a defensive 4-5-1 system, tomorrow's match is likely to feature a far more positive formation.

"It's a different game to the Chelsea one," admitted Wallace. "Chelsea away was always going to be one of the toughest games of the season so, with the greatest respect to Reading, we have to be looking at this weekend's game as a much better chance of getting a result.

"We've beaten Reading at home already this season so we know what we're capable of doing against them.

"They're the home team this time so they'll be approaching the game differently, but we definitely feel that we have enough in the locker to go to somewhere like Reading and get a result."

Keane has been linked with a possible January move for out-of-favour Wigan defender Fitz Hall. The 27-year-old centre-half, who made a £3m move to the JJB Stadium in June 2006, has yet to start a Premier League game this season.