Sam Allardyce was left frustrated after seeing his side take the lead against Tottenham, only to then capitulate to a 4-1 defeat in North London.
Speaking after the game to Sunderland’s website, Allardyce said:
“To concede 40 seconds after we scored is the biggest disappointment for me today.”
“We did most things right defensively up until then and we’d scored a superb goal before we went and shot ourselves in the foot.”
“Had we gone in at half-time with the score at 1-0 I think it could have been a different game. We did tire towards the end and our energy was diminishing, but ultimately we’ve been beaten by a very good team.”
Allardyce also spoke about his decision to give a debut to new signing Jan Kirchhoff and switch to three central defenders.
Allardyce said:
“I made changes as I thought our legs were running out and I wanted us to stay in the game, it’s the aftermath of three big away games and it was to be expected.”
“John O’Shea and Wes Brown are both in their 30s and were maybe feeling it a little bit, I brought on another defender to try and tighten it up.”
“It was [Jan]Kirchhoff’s first-ever game in the Premier League, it had to happen at some stage and it was always going to be a risk, he needs to get up to speed with the pace of the game and learn quickly.”
