Southampton was in provisional eighth place, while Sunderland moved a point clear of the bottom three.
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“Clearly, we deserved the win because we were better all over the pitch, and it feels so bad that we didn’t”.
“Of course, the most important thing for me is they’re going to be sick and exhausted of defending”, he said.
The Swede was a second-half substitute in the St Mary’s stalemate as Virgil van Dijk’s injury-time strike denied Sunderland three points on the south coast, with the Black Cats left to wonder what might have been after Jermain Defoe’s opener looked destined to seal a vital win.
Allardyce intends to use the fortnight-long gap between the Southampton trip and the Tyne-Wear derby a week on Sunday as an opportunity to work on the aspects of Sunderland’s game that have been found wanting in recent weeks – both defensive and offensive.
Having Allardyce is a massive plus in our favour BUT that doesn’t guarantee us staying up.
“There’s a lot of positives we can take out of the game”, said Defoe. Not very often – but our clean-sheet record since I’ve been here has not been good enough, it’s the reason why we’re still where we are.
While Allardyce is concentrating on Premier League survival, questions continue to be raised over the club’s off-the-field conduct during the Johnson affair and whether the 28-year-old should have been allowed to continue playing. “We focus on what we’ve got to try and do and make everybody happy come the last game of the season in May”.
“My question to the players was why did we show that spirit and belief in the last five minutes when I saw them struggling before that?” We didn’t have the composure to keep the ball, play out and see the game out properly. “We’ve got to accept that we’re still one of the favourites to get relegated”. That’s outside of our control and we really have to put that behind us.
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The former England man proclaimed that he thought the Black Cats “played well, created chances” before stating that, at “the next game’s a massive game ” “.
