Friday 29 April 2016 08:39, UK
Sam Allardyce fears Sunderland's relegation rivals Newcastle will get an easy ride against "mentally unready" Crystal Palace on Saturday.
The Sunderland boss claims he is so confident Rafa Benitez's side will beat the visitors, who celebrating their FA Cup semi-final success, he would "have a bet" if rules allowed it.
Allardyce reckons Pardew's priorities will be elsewhere this weekend and said: "Newcastle will win on Saturday, I'd have a bet on that if I could.
"Newcastle pose the bigger threat [than Norwich] to our survival.
"I think they'll beat Palace and they've got Villa, then it depends on what Spurs do there. So I think they'll win at least two.
"Palace are in the FA Cup final and they would all have been celebrating, they would all have been on the pop.
"They won't be mentally ready for it and neither will Alan because he'll be thinking about the final now, not thinking about Newcastle away.
"You're not going to stop the lads celebrating having got through to a final, particularly Crystal Palace, because it's such a good achievement for the club, the fans, Alan and the owner, there is such euphoria around the place.
"It may well serve in reverse. He could say, 'Off you go lads, go and play today and relax, the result doesn't matter as much' and they might win.
"But it could go the other way; "Ooh, I've had a good couple of days off and I don't want to get injured for the final, I might just stay out of that tackle". Who knows? I suspect it might be the latter."
