Sunderland V West Brom at Stadium of Light: LIVE

Sunderland V West Brom - view commentary, squad, and statistics of the game live.Sunderland boss Sam Allardyce: I can't ask too much more of playersSam Allardyce has admitted he cannot ask much more of his Sunderland players as they attempt to drag themselves out of Barclays Premier League relegation trouble yet again.The Black Cats entertain West Brom at the Stadium of Light on Saturday unbeaten in three games, but knowing the last two - 1-1 away draws at Southampton and Newcastle - could have been victories.Those four extra points would have lifted the club two clear of the drop zone rather than two adrift and given them a greater chance of survival.Manager Allardyce, who goes head to head with old foe Tony Pulis, said: "I'm struggling to ask the players to perform better, really. I can't ask them to perform too much better."They've been performing consistently over the last few games, so our consistent level of performance is there, it just hasn't brought the wins that we should have achieved."I have still got to try to mentally work on that side of it for the players and hope they can take it on to the pitch and keep performing the way they are, keep getting in front, keep scoring the first goal and try to make sure we can see it out for a win."Allardyce's first game in charge ended in a controversial 1-0 defeat by the Baggies at the Hawthorns in October on a day when he firmly believed the winning goal should have been ruled out for a foul on keeper Costel Pantilimon.He believes significant progress has been made since, but knows there is still much hard work to be done.He said: "Technically, tactically and physically we are much, much better than we were at that stage. Improvement-wise, we have done (improved), but we haven't gathered enough points."The points we should have gained, we should have been looking at one or two wins maximum now to be safe. Now we are still looking at four out of eight to be absolutely certain."Sunderland defender Younes Kaboul has returned to training after limping out of the 1-1 draw with Newcastle on March 20 with a calf problem.Fellow central defender Lamine Kone and midfielder Wahbi Khazri have recovered from the minor knocks which prevented them from linking up with the Ivory Coast and Tunisia respectively during the international break.Full-back Billy Jones is expected to be fit after nursing a slight knock, leaving only striker Duncan Watmore (ankle ligaments) on the casualty list.Pulis insists West Brom have a duty to Sunderland's relegation rivals not to roll over.Albion go to the Stadium of Light on Saturday firmly in mid-table and in little danger of being dragged into any scrap at the bottom.A draw would take them to the recognised safety mark of 40 points with six games left.Sunderland are two points from safety with main relegation rivals Norwich and Newcastle playing each other at Carrow Road.And Pulis dismissed any fears the Baggies, who are 11th in the Barclays Premier League, will lose the edge which has seen them climb 13 points away from the drop zone."I've been in the game long enough and understand that when you get to a certain number of points the pressure relaxes and calms a little bit," he told a press conference."We need to have that edge about us. It's maintaining that edge and we've got to do that."The important thing is the lads recognise with the games left, most of the games are important - if not for us, for other teams as well."We have a responsibility to everybody to make sure we turn up and have a right go."I still think you need to get to that magical 40 points. If we get to that as quickly as we can we're okay and then push on from there."We have different targets that we've set ourselves and would like to achieve and that's important."Stephane Sessegnon will be assessed after international duty with Benin while Callum McManaman may return after six weeks out with an ankle injury.James Morrison is closing in on a comeback following a hamstring issue while Chris Brunt (knee) is out."The internationals have all come back, the only one we haven't seen is Sess," Pulis added."We haven't seen him so we don't know what state he's in."

Source: PAR