Sunderland crush toothless Palace

Britain Football Soccer - Crystal Palace v Sunderland - Premier League - Selhurst Park - 4/2/17 Sunderland's Jermain Defoe celebrates after scoring Reuters / Andrew Winning Livepic

REUTERS - Sunderland produced a remarkable display to crush fellow Premier League strugglers Crystal Palace 4-0 at Selhurst Park on Saturday.

Sunderland, with just once away league win all season, opened the scoring in the ninth minute through defender Lamine Kone before Didier Ndong added the first of three goals in five frantic minutes.

Jermain Defoe ended the contest before the break with a smart quickfire double - his 13th and 14th league goals of the season - as Sunderland ran riot against a team managed by their former boss Sam Allardyce.

Sunderland remained bottom of the table but climbed level on points with 19th-placed Palace who have won just once in 10 league games.

(Reporting by Tom Hayward, editing by Ed Osmond)