Football
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Dick Advocaat shocked by Sunderland surrender at home to Crystal Palace

Dick Advocaat admits his Sunderland side were made to pay for a second-half surrender as Crystal Palace left the Stadium of Light with a 4-1 victory on Saturday.

Palace winger Yannick Bolasie beat Black Cats keeper Costel Pantilimon three times inside 11 second-half minutes to add to Glenn Murray's opener as Palace roared to a win at the Stadium of Light.

Sunderland remain very firmly entrenched in another fight for top-flight survival, three points clear of the drop zone but just four off the bottom as a result of Leicester's 3-2 victory at West Brom.

Asked if he was shocked by his side's tame surrender just six days after the derby victory over Newcastle, head coach Dick Advocaat said: "Yes -- you can see what can change in six days' time and the good performance against Newcastle, and today, we were not in the game.

"Even in the first half, Crystal Palace were already a little bit the better side with their pace up front. The individual skills of the players there damaged us a little bit, despite the fact that it was still 0-0.

"But we gave it away in seven minutes, three goals, and then the game was [finished].''

However Advocaat, who saw Connor Wickham reduce the deficit a minute from time, refused to lay into his players as he attempts to drag them to safety with just six games left to play.

He said: "There is no reason to become angry because if I want to become angry, there must be a need behind that. But they tried to do their best.

"We have to improve, we have to improve as a team and it doesn't help if I start shouting at everybody because some players are playing to their limits, that's about it.

"But again, they showed against Newcastle if everybody knows what to do in the game, then you can get some results, and now we have to do that against Stoke City."

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