Sam Allardyce blasts defence after 2-2 draw with Palace

Sam Allardyce criticised Sunderland's defenders for their inability to keep clean sheets after his side threw away a half-time lead to only draw 2-2 with Crystal Palace at the Stadium of Light on Tuesday night.

The home side led at half-time thanks to Dame N'Doye's first-half strike - his first for the club - only to then find themselves trailing 2-1 heading into stoppage time.

However, Sunderland managed to rescue a point thanks to Fabio Borini's goal which saw them move out of the relegation zone.

Despite leapfrogging Norwich City, though, Allardyce was annoyed his team allowed the visitors to score twice in six second-half minutes through former Sunderland striker Connor Wickham.

"When you score in the last minute with such a fantastic goal, then you have to be happy to have got a point, but the disappointing thing is in the way the game panned out today as it should have been three," said Allardyce, who lost influential centre-back John O'Shea to injury in the first half.

"And I am very disappointed in the players' lack of responsibility in their reaction to Palace scoring a goal - it will happen to you. We were in a very comfortable position, playing well, looking like we could maybe try and score another goal."

The turning point in the game according to Allardyce was when defender Younes Kaboul missed a gilt-edge chance to double Sunderland's lead just before half-time.

"We should have scored another goal just on half-time with a free-kick from Wahbi [Khazri] and I do not know how we missed it, but no," Allardyce added.

"Then because they score a goal, which was a really good strike, although it took a bit of a deflection off DeAndre [Yedlin], we lose our composure, we panic.

The Black Cats manager was quick to highlight his team's struggles at the back, with Sunderland currently holding the joint-worse defensive record in the Premier League along with Norwich.

"But at the end of the day we do not keep clean sheets, so we know we are going to have to get two goals to win it," said Allardyce. "Everybody knows that, and if the players do not know it, there must be something wrong with them because the last time I had a clean sheet was like 12 games a go I think.

"So we knew we were going to have to get two, but like I said, in the end it was a good point on the basis that with just a minute or two to go we were 2-1 down."