Geoff Shreeves speaks to Sam Allardyce about Sunderland's derby victory against Newcastle and his aims for the rest of the season. Geoff Shreeves speaks to Sam Allardyce about Sunderland's derby victory against Newcastle and his aims for the rest of the season.

Sam Allardyce is backing himself to keep Sunderland in the Premier League and prove Dick Advocaat wrong.

After leaving the Black Cats with three points from their opening eight games, Advocaat said the squad is not good enough to avoid relegation to the Championship.

They have battled against the drop for the past four seasons, but Allardyce, who oversaw a 3-0 derby win over Newcastle last weekend, is determined to change things this year.

"I like a challenge," Allardyce, speaking to Sky Sports' Geoff Shreeves. "When somebody says you can't do it, I want to do it.

"Dick [Advocaat, previous Sunderland manager] says we are not going to stay up, I'm going to show him we can.

"I've got a steely determination when somebody says you can't have something I have to have it. I have the confidence in my ability too."

The win over Newcastle was a record sixth straight derby victory for Sunderland but, ahead of a trip to Everton on Super Sunday, Allardyce says there is still plenty of room for improvement.

"Our way forward is to stop conceding the sort of goals we have conceded, that's what we build our results from," he said. "Defensively we have to be solid, make no mistake about it we have a lot of room for improvement. We won the derby which was fantastic but we still have to improve.

"The first eight games they had to score three goals on average to win, they are not going to score three goals every game."

Billy Jones (R) celebrates with team-mates after scoring against Newcastle

Allardyce was appointed Sunderland manager in early October after being sacked by West Ham at the end of last season.

He revealed why he decided to take the job and how he hopes to turn the club's fortunes around.

"I thought it's eight games in, 30 to go, which gives me time to get in among the players and staff and say this is where we have to go and this is what we have to achieve behind the scenes to give the players the best chance they can to be successful," he said.

"If this is a difficult job it's because the club has been fighting relegation for four straight years, there is almost a tendency for people to accept that's the way it is.

Sam Allardyce enjoyed victory over Newcastle in the derby

"I have to change that mentality. We want to be out of this by February or March, not waiting until the last six games of the season, that's not the way forward."

Asked whether he has already discussed with chairman Ellis Short about making signings in January, Allardyce said: "I said we might need some help, but we never talked about how much or figures. It was a case of saying I don't know how much we've got until I get amongst it. Once I get amongst it maybe we need to find some better players than we already have.

"The squad have a big responsibility to produce the best results to make everybody's life easier so we don't need too much in January. We can't promise in January that if we are struggling we will find better players."

Watch Everton v Sunderland live on Sky Sports 1 HD on Sunday at 1.30pm. Coverage - featuring Sam Allardyce's interview with Geoff Shreeves - starts at 12.30pm.