Alan Pardew: Hat-trick hero Yannick Bolasie can get amongst the goals more often for Crystal Palace

Bolasie had just one Premier League goal ever before the game

The winger applied a neat lofted finish for the second (Getty Images)

Crystal Palace boss Alan Pardew challenged Yannick Bolasie to get himself among the goals more regularly after seeing him score the club's first ever Premier League hat-trick at Sunderland.

The DR Congo international beat Black Cats keeper Costel Pantilimon three times inside 11 second-half minutes to add to Glenn Murray's opener as Palace roared to a 4-1 victory at the Stadium of Light.

They were Bolasie's first goals since September but Pardew is hopeful they will not be his last of the campaign.

Asked if he was surprised the midfielder does not score more often, the 53-year-old said: "A little bit, yes. I think the last goal he scored was against Everton, and I don't think he's scored many goals in the Premier League.

"Someone has just said to me he's the first Crystal Palace player to get a Premier League hat-trick, and that is a surprise when you think of Glenn Murray and the strikers we have had, so he has got a nice little tag to his name now.

"Now he needs to build on that. Two of those finishes were top-drawer. He was a problem, I thought, in the first half and it was just getting the moment, seizing it.

"The second goal was just power and pace and a clever finish. His second goal was a great goal. He was calm and dictated the moment."

Palace won the game in a chaotic 14-minute blitz at the start of the second half as Sunderland imploded in spectacular style.

Murray headed them in front from Bolasie's 48th-minute cross, but it was then that the DR Congo international took over, plundering a quickfire hat-trick as he tormented central defenders Santiago Vergini and John O'Shea.

The Eagles have now claimed 25 of the 36 points they have contested since Pardew took the helm and sit in 11th place on 42, having effectively secured their top-flight status for another season.

Pardew, of course, suffered defeat by Sunderland in his last four derbies as Newcastle boss, but when asked if the win was all the sweeter as a result, he refused to be drawn.

He said: "It was a great performance by Crystal Palace today."

But if Palace can start planning for next season, Sunderland remain very firmly entrenched in another fight for top-flight survival, three points clear of the drop zone but just four off the bottom as a result of Leicester's 3-2 victory at West Brom.

Asked if he was shocked by his side's tame surrender just six days after the derby victory over Newcastle, head coach Dick Advocaat said: "Yes - you can see what can change in six days' time and the good performance against Newcastle, and today, we were not in the game.

"Even in the first half, Crystal Palace were already a little bit the better side with their pace up front. The individual skills of the players there damaged us a little bit, despite the fact that it was still 0-0.

"But we gave it away in seven minutes', three goals, and then the game was (finished)."

However Advocaat, who saw Connor Wickham reduce the deficit a minute from time, refused to lay into his players as he attempts to drag them to safety with just six games left to play.

He said: "There is no reason to become angry because if I want to become angry, there must be a need behind that. But they tried to do their best.

"We have to improve, we have to improve as a team and it doesn't help if I start shouting at everybody because some players are playing to their limits, that's about it.

"But again, they showed against Newcastle if everybody knows what to do in the game, then you can get some results, and now we have to do that against Stoke City."

PA