Sam Allardyce expected this reunion with his former club to mark a staging point in Crystal Palace's bid to secure their Premier League status. Instead, the manager was left humiliated as his current side were overwhelmed and embarrassed by a devastating first half performance from Sunderland that was capped by three goals in the final six minutes.

With Lamine Kone having put Sunderland ahead in the tenth minute, Didier Ndong’s goal followed by two from Jermain Defoe settled the outcome before the interval had been reached. In a game between two sides rooted in the bottom three, only one looked like contenders to survive.

As impressive as David Moyes’s side were, Palace were awful and guilty of woeful defensive mistakes. The performance prompted an angry reaction within the stadium that spilled over when one home supporter confronted Damien Delaney, the Palace centre-back at half-time. The fact that Allardyce’s side were booed back out onto the pitch at the start of the second half spoke volumes.

This was undoubtedly a day for Moyes, the Sunderland manager to savour. Having admitted his frustration at the quality of the squad he inherited from Allardyce last summer, Moyes had cause to believe that, having gained a confidence-boosting point against Tottenham Hotspur midweek, his side is moving in the right direction.

Kone opened the scored for the Black Cats (Getty)

Allardyce has no such cause for optimism after this display. The manager’s mood had undoubtedly been lifted after last Tuesday’s win at Bournemouth and he had declared himself “delighted” at the club’s work in bringing in four new faces last month although admitted the board’s work in outspending every other Premier League club during the January window placed added to the pressure to stay up.

The first half suggested it will take more to turn things around.

Having allowed Jermain Defoe an early sight of goal when the Sunderland striker outpaced Scott Dann before being denied by Hennessey’s save, Allardyce’s side capitulated under the first sign of aerial pressure. And from that point things only got worse.

Sebastian Larsson’s lofted free-kick should not have caused many problems, but Kone was allowed to direct a far post header back into the six-yard box where Hennessey’s unconvincing attempt to punch clear under pressure from Billy Jones resulted only in the ball dropping to the floor and Kone reacted first to scramble home.

Defoe scored twice in added time in the first half (Getty)

Ten minutes gone and the pressure on Palace had just gone up several notches while Sunderland could settle back and adopt a policy of containment as the home side struggled to find a way through to Vito Mannone’s goal.

Had James Tomkins not managed to send a close range header wide from Damien Delaney’s cross ten minutes later, the balance of the game might have shifted. As it was, with Kone producing an excellent block to deny a Christian Benteke header, Sunderland eased to a comfort zone before an exhilarating end to the half that left their opponents beaten and embarrassed.

Didier Ndong reacted well when Damien Delaney’s poor clearing header played Joe Ledley into trouble, dispossessing the midfielder before beating Hennessey with a 25-yard shot to double the lead in the 43rd minute.

Allardyce tried to sign Defoe for West Ham in January (Getty)

Then two minutes later, Sunderland broke quickly with the ball being played out to Adnan Januzaj on the left hand flank. The winger was given time and space to press forward before picking out Defoe’s run into the box and, taking the ball in his stride, the forward took one touch before firing beyond Hennessey inside the far post.

Three minutes of added time meant there was another opportunity for Defoe to demonstrate his instinct for goal is a strong as ever, this time after collecting a Januzaj pass from the right hand flank. A sharp turn took him inside Tomkins’ ineffective challenge and created the space for another well placed finish.

The second half was one of containment by Sunderland in the face of increasingly ineffective Palace pressure. The dameg had already been done.

Crystal Palace (3-4-3): Hennessey; Dann, Tomkins, Delaney (Townsend 46); Ward, Cabaye (Ledley 26), Puncheon, Van Aanholt; Zaha, Benteke, McArthur (Remy 60)

Subs: Speroni, Fryers, Sakho, Flamini, Townsend, Remy.

Sunderland (5-3-2): Mannone; Jones, Kone, O'Shea (Lescott 54), Denayer, Oviedo; Ndong, Rodwell (Gibson 50), Larsson; Januzaj (Pienaar 76), Defoe.