Big Sam Takes Black Cat Mauling

Last updated : 13 January 2013 By Tott Dixon - Seaham

Sam Allardyce: "The big blow for me is not having enough defenders at the moment. There are too many of my defenders injured.

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"We have had too many injuries recently, but the injury situation with defenders with George McCartney not being here, Joey O'Brien not being here and James Collins getting injured today means that the defensive side of our team is particularly weak and short of numbers now.

"I am really going to have to go and try to strengthen that area in the next few days.

"It was a comedy of errors which led to the second goal, which effectively killed off the game.

"Just look at it, it was pathetic, wasn't it? We have a free-kick and we let the opposition score.

"[Keeper] Jussi [Jaaskelainen] gets us out of jail in the first place by making a really, really good save, and then we mess up the clearance and they score, so it probably sums us up today.

"We didn't defend correctly, we didn't have the appetite for defending correctly and nullifying the opposition's strengths, we never passed the ball as well as we know we can.

"It was really an all-round performance that makes life extremely difficult for me to accept, the performance I have seen based on how well we played just seven days ago against Manchester United.

"The level of difference in performance between that game and this is just staggering.

"All round last week, we were absolutely brilliant in all departments; this week, we were poor in all departments, hence we were beaten comprehensively by a team who deserved to beat us."