Allardyce demands winning run from Sunderland

Sam Allardyce begins his Sunderland career against
West Brom on Saturday and he wants to see a run of
victories from his side.

Sam Allardyce says Sunderland must consider every match
"enormous" as they look to establish a winning run against West
Brom on Saturday.

Sunderland have yet to win so far in the Premier League this
season and only goal difference separates them from near
neighbours Newcastle United at the bottom of the table.

Allardyce, who replaced Dick Advocaat as manager last week,
believes getting off to a winning start under his leadership will
be crucial to their hopes of survival.

"Every game is enormous for us," he said. "We will have to be
consistent, we will have to be resilient, we will have to be
mentally tough in terms of believing in ourselves to try to get
ourselves out of this position because, in all honesty, winning
three games on the trot is going to be very difficult for us.

"But it would be three games winning on the trot before we
would even consider ourselves being able to start to feel a little
bit safe.

"Even if we win the game at West Brom, it's a nice start, it's a
good start, but we are still in that position."

Allardyce hopes to see Sunderland invigorated by the change of
manager but is wary of allowing any renewed optimism to ebb
away in the coming weeks.

"Part of the process of settling in is that you have little time to
work with the team before West Brom," he said to the
Sunderland Echo.

"I'm going to have to rely on that change of manager bounce
that maybe kick-starts the players into getting that result,
however they can achieve it.

"Only 13 players were here at the start of the week, so I've taken
in a lot of information from the staff about what team we could
play.

"If I get the initial reaction that a new team sometimes gives a
new manager and get a result, then I have to sustain that and
not let it dip away."