West Ham vs Sunderland: Sam Allardyce redirects his wrath from Karren Brady to Sky Sports' man David Jones

Straight after the match, Jones quoted Brady’s column in The Sun as saying West Ham had been “under-performing”, prompting Allardyce to retort: “She’s wrong. We haven’t been under-performing, we’ve been under-results- getting. She’s wrong in what she’s saying.”

When Jones’s mistake – Brady in fact said the team had been “under-achieving” – was pointed out to Allardyce, he said: “It’s Sky’s fault. He’s asked the wrong question. It’s ridiculous, for a man of his professionalism. I don’t expect it from them. When I see him next, and I will see him privately, he’d better watch out.”

Allardyce would not be the first manager to be undermined by Brady’s public criticism. It happened to Alex McLeish at Birmingham City and Avram Grant at West Ham. But Allardyce – who had been linked with the Sunderland job before the appointment of Dick Advocaat – dismissed the suggestion.

“I haven’t had anything other than support from Karren,” he said. “If she’d said I was disappointed, as the results we’ve achieved have not been there, I could accept that because that’s been true. Some of our best performances, like against Man United, Tottenham and Chelsea, we haven’t won.”

The win over Sunderland takes West Ham past the 40-point mark, traditionally seen as guaranteeing Premier League survival, though Allardyce said the team had been “safe since Christmas”.

He added: “If we’d managed to hold on to a victory against Manchester United and a victory against Tottenham, which was lost in the last four seconds, we’d have been eulogising about how great our season was.”