Sunderland boss Sam Allardyce is "convinced" they'll beat the drop.

But in hopeful pursuit of between 38 and 40 points, the Black Cats manager says his side must claim a win - or a winning run - “now or never".

Asked if he still believes Sunderland can escape relegation, Allardyce said: “Absolutely, yeah.

“I've never disbelieved it, never felt like I couldn't. Not at any stage. Even when we lost five on the trot (in December), I always believed we could stay up.

“Because there's always glimpses of the team being capable and then there's been times they've just lost control and instead of sticking in there and hanging in there, they've allowed the opposition to score a couple of goals in four minutes and it's just killed us off.

“That focus on those periods, which will come again, is on not letting the opposition score against us and then to play our way back into the game."