London: Plugging the leaks in Crystal Palace's porous defence will be the first priority for the south London club's new manager Sam Allardyce as he looks ahead to a hectic Christmas period.
Former England boss Allardyce replaced the sacked Alan Pardew on Friday with Palace just above the relegation zone with the third-worst defensive record in the Premier League.
"We have a very important job of stopping goals going in at the other end," Allardyce, said.
"Attacking players when you are in possession are fantastic this season. The strengthening in that area by the club and by Alan has brought a lot of flair to the team and I think that has brought quite a lot more goals.
"But the other side is that when we are not in possession we have got to stop conceding and make sure that goals we score win us games. It sounds simple but it's not that easy."
The experienced 62-year-old was available to Palace after his short reign as England manager ended after just 67 days in September following comments he made in a newspaper sting about "getting around" FA rules on player transfers.
