Sam Allardyce's Sunderland side took yet another step in the wrong direction on Sunday as they suffered a 6-2 defeat at the hands of Everton.

Gerard Deulofeu and Arouna Kone gave the home side a solid lead but goals either side of half-time from Jermain Defoe and Steven Fletcher gave Sunderland hope.

However, it capitulated from there and a own goal from Sebastian Coates snowballed the game with goals from Romelu Lukaku and another two from Kone rounding off a pretty dismal performance from the Black Cats.

Visitors start bright

It was the away side that started the brightest on the back of their first victory of the campaign last week against Newcastle United, and they came close to taking the lead on two separate occasions inside the first 15 minutes.

It was Patrick van Aanholt who stepped up first three minutes in when Fletcher brilliantly pulled the ball back for the full-back who drove a powerful shot towards goal, but it crashed back off the post.

Sunderland found the woodwork again only 11 minutes later when they broke on the counter attack, with Defoe been denied by Tim Howard.

The loose ball then fell perfectly for Adam Johnson who found the post again and it looked to be third time lucky as the ball fell to Fletcher, but Howard was there to put in a great block.

Everton take advantage of Sunderland's missed chances

Despite been under the quash it was Everton that took the lead just before the 20 minute mark. Kone flicked the ball through which was latched upon by Deulofeu, and he then made a blistering run towards goal and cut back inside before firing towards goal, his shot managing to creep under Costel Pantilimon and into the net.

Kone then turned goalscorer as he got his first goal of the afternoon just after the half hour mark.

His firs came from a great piece of link up play on the edge of the area with Lukaku, and when he received the ball back he managed to take it beyond his marker before smashing it beyond the reach of Pantilimon and into the roof of the net.

Black Cats claw back

Lukaku wasted an opportunity to add a third two minutes from the end of the first half and he would regret his miss too as Defoe managed to get one back in stoppage time.

The striker did brilliantly to beat John Stones to a long ball before doing well to flick it over Funes Mori and hit his shot straight past Howard into the far corner to give Sunderland a glimmer of hope.

They were back on level terms only five minutes after the restart too. Van Aanholt was the provider this time, brilliantly whipping the ball into the area and Fletcher rose highest above Mori to head home, scoring after being the subject of some personal motivation from Allardyce in the build-up to this game.

Downward spiral from Allardyce's men 

The Black Cats hard work was all undone in the blink of a eye though as Coates' own goal but the Toffees back into the lead. 

Lukaku was waiting in the wings to try get a header on target from the cross, but Coates did the hard work for him when he stuck his leg out and prodded it into his own net.

However, the Belgian, whose presence had led to this goal, eventually got his own name on the scoresheet bang on the hour mark and it proved to be one of the easiest ones of his career.

Deulofeu did brilliantly to play a great through ball into the striker, and he showed good trickery to take the ball around Pantilimon and stroke into the empty net to kill the game.

Hat-trick hero

Kone secured the three points 27 minutes from the end when he got his second of the afternoon.

Ross Barkley played a ball to James McCarthy who did brilliantly to play the reverse pass into the Ivorian who coolly slotted home to make sure the win was in the bag.

He ended his afternoon on a high too as he completed his hat-trick 14 minutes from the end. It looked like poor defending from the visitors as Lukaku had all the time in the world to pick out his partner and he had no trouble to head home from six yards.

This rounded off a miserable outing for the Black Cats, whose hard work from last week was all undone, not to mention the effort they put into coming back from 2-0 down to level.

Everton, however, climb into the top half of the table with these three points, sitting nicely in ninth having bounced back from back-to-back league defeats against Arsenal and Manchester United.

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About the author
Danial  Kennedy
Award-winning sports journalism graduate. Currently studying a PR Masters at the University of Sunderland. Writing for VAVEL since August 2014. Twitter - @ddkjournalism.