The nightmare before Christmas

In the aftermath of our defeat to Chelsea, and with a little help from the referee Newcastle United were left feeling deflated.

It wasn't the loss of the game that brought this feeling about for me, it was more the loss of our two solid central defenders to injury.

I think every fan knew that if anything was to happen to either Steven Taylor or Fabricio Coloccini then cover would be pretty much non-existent for them. Now we've lost both of them, and with the busy Christmas period of games coming up, Alan Pardew must be scratching his head uncontrollably with what to do in the heart of defence.

We all know that Mike Williamson can't be thrown straight back into the mix after a lengthy period on the injury table and that's where the options for recognised centre-backs ends. James Perch gave a good account of himself against Didier Drogba but as we all know he is prone to a little mistake or rash decision when tackling.

What astonishes me is that we failed to get any sort of cover in the summer for our defenders and again I fear that we might just fail again in January if our previous transfer dealings are anything to go by. We now have to rely on the likes of James Perch, Danny Simpson and Tamas Kadar whose whereabouts are some what of a mystery.

If the injury to Coloccini isn't serious and he only misses one game then I think it would be a small price to pay with two inexperienced centre-backs for that game. However you have to think that if captain Colo misses more time then the lack of cover is simply down to the people in charge failing to get transfers over the line and shooting themselves in the foot by doing so.

The Christmas fixtures aren't going to be easy, as no Premier League game is, however we need those that are fit to come together and show that they are willing to show their worth and not let the team down.

Then come January we need to hope that targets are lined up and brought in ASAP.

Thanks to ethitoon for sending this in. I'm sure we all agree it's not a great situation to be in and hope for the best possible outcome from it.