Alan Pardew felt his Crystal Palace attack were not clinical enough against Sunderland on Monday night.

The Eagles were beaten 1-0 by the Black Cats at Selhurst Park and Pardew believes the result was down to the South Londoner's inability to break down Sam Allardyce's five-man midfield.

"You've got to win a game of football to go sixth," said Pardew after the game. "We over did it a couple of times tonight.

"We should have been a bit more simplistic and put pressure on that back five.

"In a way it's a compliment that teams are going to put five at the back and three on top of that. Unfortunately we couldn't find a way through tonight.

"We should have been cleaner and more incisive, especially in the final third."

Jermain Defoe scored the only goal of the contest in the 80th minute as Sunderland moved from second bottom to 18th spot on the Premier League table which sees Palace occupying 10th.