For Gus Poyet this was the first of what he described as a dozen ‘cup finals’ between now and the end of the season.

Well, now it’s 11 — and the odds on his Sunderland team beating the drop have shortened ominously after they failed to win what the manager described beforehand as their biggest game of the season.

Perhaps ‘cup final’ was the wrong choice of words.

After all, hadn’t Sunderland’s manager seen their success in reaching the final of the Capital One Cup and the quarter-finals of the FA Cup as a troublesome distraction from the real issue — which is to preserve the club’s Premier League status?

Poyet remains upbeat. ‘We tried everything,’ he said.

‘They had a plan; a very good plan and we couldn’t score. But the players gave everything. Things just didn’t go our way.’

He added: ‘It’s not going to be easy, but if we try like today and fight like today, we will have a good chance [of staying up].’

In the eyes of disgruntled Sunderland supporters, Poyet had been responsible for a virtual abdication of the team’s FA Cup chances against Hull City the previous week by leaving out six regulars.

The absentees were back here but it didn’t show in a match which was almost totally devoid of serious goalmouth action — at either end!

Not that Palace were too bothered about that. They were more concerned with trying to protect what they started with.

And why not?

Pulis’s tactics might never endear him to those who crave a more beautiful game.

However, if the Londoners’ boss maintains his record of never having been relegated, he will claim justly that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

‘If this was a must-win game for Sunderland, for us it was a must-not-lose one,’ Pulis observed. ‘The home supporters were really behind their team, screaming for everything. We had half a dozen players who hadn’t been at the Stadium of Light before and for them to withstand that was terrific.

‘We just have to win as many points as possible because it’s remarkable the number of teams still involved in it.’

Apart from a Ki first-time volley and a spectacular overhead kick from Fabio Borini, there was little for the home fans to get worked up about in the first half.

At least Jozy Altidore, a half-time replacement for the injured Steve Fletcher, showed what the Black Cat followers had been missing. The US striker hit a fine shot on the turn which Julian Speroni palmed over.

But it could have been a lot worse for Poyet. Kagisho Dikgacoi wasted the chance of the match in the 88th minute, blasting wide from 10 yards out.

—Daily Mail