Sunderland 1-4 Crystal Palace: Quick fire Bolasie hat-trick stuns Sunderland

Sunderland capitulated in the opening 20 minutes of the second half to lose convincingly to Crystal Palace and leave themselves right in the relegation mire.

After a fairly even and uneventful first period the game sparked into life with Glen Murray giving the visitors a 47th minute lead. Yanick Bolasie got on the end of a long ball down the right side of the box and floated a ball to the far post where Murray ghosted in to head home from three yards out.

Just two minutes later and things got even better for the Eagles as Bolasie doubled their lead after he out muscled Santiago Vergini to get on the end of Murray's flick on and then toe pocked past Costel Pantilimon.

Then for the second time in three home games the Sunderland fans were heading for the exits in their droves as Bolasie struck again to end the game as a contest. Another aimless ball was not dealt with as John O'Shea allowed the ball to bounce and the DR Congo winger stole in to lob the goalkeeper.

The hour mark arrived and with it the ten minute hat trick for Bolasie who scrambled hope Pardew's men's fourth goal. Murray completely bullied O'Shea off the ball and then squared to Bolasie who managed to get around the sprawling Pantilimon before stumbling forward to swipe home into the empty net.

Sunderland managed a consolation in the last minute of normal time through Conor Wickham although barely anyone was there to see it. He manged to stab home a low cross from the left from Patrick Van Aanholt in arguably the most pointless goal of his career.

All of this after an even first half where Sunderland probably threatened slightly the more with Steven Fletcher getting in a couple of half decent efforts on target after good crosses from the left. Jack Rodwell probably should have saw red for the home side after an out of control tackle on James McArthur but it turned out meaningless after the events of the second half or 20 minutes of it.

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