Allardyce left worried by Sunderland's defensive woes

Sunderland conceded six in their defeat to Everton and
manager Sam Allardyce admits their defending has
him worried.

Sunderland manager Sam Allardyce admits his side's defensive
frailties are becoming a real concern after their defeat to
Everton.

The visitors found themselves two goals down at Goodison Park
on Saturday but clawed their way back to 2-2 thanks to Jermain
Defoe and Steven Fletcher.

However, three goals in seven second-half minutes left
Sunderland facing a mountain to climb before Arouna Kone
scored his third of the match in the closing stages to seal a 6-2
victory.

And Allardyce accepts that problems at the back could prove
fatal to his side's hopes of avoiding relegation from the Premier
League this season.

"The defensive frailties were just too much in the side today and
we allowed Everton to win the game comfortably in the end," he
said afterwards.

"If we don’t sort those out, and we are going to give it away like
we did when we got to 2-2 today, it will be a long haul over the
next few months or so.

"We'll have to have a look into it. We've not played too bad in
the first half.

"We got back to 2-2 but we just made it so easy for Everton to
score three in seven minutes.

"From an attacking point of view we've got at Everton's back
players and produced an awful lot of shots at their goal, but out
of possession to let them score six from eight shots on target
shows the frailties we've got."

Sunderland remain second from bottom in the table after 11
games and could be overtaken by Aston Villa should they
beat Tottenham on Monday.