SAM Allardyce believes recent Premiership performances show Wanderers will not be relegation fodder at the end of the season.

But he fears there will be no new additions to his squad during the transfer window, despite recent speculation linking him with Manchester City's Shaun Goater, among others.

While they rarely looked like scoring during last night's 2-0 extra time defeat at Sunderland in the FA Cup third round replay, Allardyce feels his side are creating enough chances during their Premiership games to gain the points to keep top flight football at the Reebok Stadium.

Until recently Allardyce had been hoping to bring in two players, with a top defender and attacker on his wanted list.

Then last Thursday Allardyce revealed there may only be money for a single striker.

The likes of Shaun Goater, Malcolm Christie, Pierre van Hooijdonk and Les Ferdinand have all been linked with a move to the Reebok, but two weeks into January and Allardyce has now admitted there may not be time or the resources for any additions.

Allardyce said: "I wish I had some transfer news but a tight budget is making life very difficult for me and time is running out rapidly.

"At the moment I am not very hopeful because I have not got anyone within my budget - I've got plenty who can fit outside of it who are too expensive and that is the main problem for me.

"Until the prices of the ones we have targeted drop we will not be getting them. The other hope is that a player who

is good enough for us becomes available within our price range, but until that happens then there will be no movement.

"We are good enough to stay up because we had 19 attempts on Saturday, 18 of which were on target and four one-on-ones with their goalkeeper.

"If we carry on making that many chances we will stick the ball in the net eventually."

The Whites went down to goals from Julio Arca and Michael Proctor at a windy Stadium of Light, with Allardyce admitting his side had been poor.

His gamble of bringing back players recovering from injury backfired, with starters Bernard Mendy and Bruno N'Gotty as well as sub Paul Warhurst not reaching their usual levels of performance.

He said: "We were second best because we put in players who were not quite ready such as Bernard, Paul and Bruno.

"But we got through the game without picking up more injuries and that is a positive for us.

"Sunderland thoroughly deserved it on the night because we were not very good.

"We did not cope with our opposition or the conditions. We tried to play too much football and it was not a night for that."

Black Cats boss Howard Wilkinson was pleased with his own side, who will now face Blackburn.

He said: "We got the result we deserved. We did not want extra time, but we would have felt a lot worse if we had lost."