ONLY in the weird and wonderful world of Newcastle United can what doesn't happen be more important than what does.

Alan Shearer doesn't make the starting line-up on the fifth anniversary of Ruud Gullit's departure following his decision to drop the Newcastle skipper to the bench for an ill-fated derby defeat to Sunderland.

Kieron Dyer doesn't even make the bench in the wake of his recent outburst, leading to misguided speculation that the England international could be on his way to either Aston Villa or Portsmouth ahead of tomorrow's transfer deadline.

And Wayne Rooney doesn't do anything to solve the long-running riddle of whether he will opt to join Newcastle rather than Manchester United.

It sometimes seems that a football match is an irrelevance to life on Tyneside.

"Once again we are talking about players that haven't played," admitted left-back Olivier Bernard, in the wake of Saturday's calamitous defeat at Villa Park. "We shouldn't be.

"It's all about the team. We shouldn't talk about the players who haven't played, we should talk about the players who have done well on the pitch."

But therein lies the problem - that wouldn't take very long. Nobody did well in a wretched second-half display, and you can certainly add defending to the long list of things that didn't happen last weekend.

Robson has repeatedly stressed that, in pursuing Rooney, he is chasing the most exciting prospect in the English game.

Fair enough, but unless the Newcastle boss is going to play him at centre-half it is impossible to see how Rooney is going to help United avoid the kind of basic defensive errors that led to Aston Villa inflicting their second defeat of an increasingly fraught campaign.

He wouldn't have been responsible for tracking Olof Mellberg as he ghosted into the penalty area to open the scoring after just four minutes, and he wouldn't have been asked to mark either Carlton Cole or Gareth Barry as they converted routine crosses from opposite flanks to fire Villa into a second-half lead.

He would have been asked to contribute at the other end, but four goals in the last two games suggest Newcastle's attacking play is not at the root of their problems. And how many times does that have to be said before something is done about it?

With everything else that is happening at St James' Park, it is easy to lose sight of the most basic of facts, namely that Newcastle will achieve precisely nothing unless they stop conceding the same silly goals that have cost them throughout Robson's reign.

"Players have made individual mistakes and we have to cut that out," admitted the embattled United boss. "But I've tried to buy a centre half and I don't think anyone's hiding the fact that we want to bring another defender to the club."

A commanding centre-half is an absolute priority in the light of Saturday's display that saw Bernard and Stephen Carr ripped apart down the wings, while Aaron Hughes and Andy O'Brien floundered against the aerial ability of Cole and the pacy running of Darius Vassell.

It wasn't just the back four who collapsed after the break either, with Lee Bowyer's apathetic concession of possession leading directly to Villa's equaliser and Laurent Robert's anonymity leaving Bernard horribly exposed against former United favourite Nolberto Solano.

Robson's decision to exclude Dyer and James Milner in favour of Bowyer did not work, but it was keeping a certain centre-forward out of the starting line-up that could have the most profound impact on the rest of the season.

When Gullit dropped Shearer ahead of the Tyne-Wear derby, he was said to be writing his own suicide note. Robson wasn't doing that on Saturday, but his decision to drop his skipper was partly a belated show of strength and partly a cry for help.

Not that Shearer was ever dropped at all, of course, if Robson is to be believed. "Alan wasn't dropped," he argued. "In my opinion he looked a bit tired on Wednesday as the game was ending.

"When Arsene Wenger leaves Thierry Henry on the bench or Sir Alex Ferguson leaves Ruud van Nistelrooy on the bench, those guys get away with it - but when I do it with Alan the balloon goes up."

Suffice to say Shearer sees things somewhat differently and, while he is refusing to be drawn into a public war of words with his manager, it will be interesting to see how his already strained relationship with Robson develops if his exclusion from the side is extended.

He didn't get much sympathy from Bernard - "You get what you deserve and no-one has a divine right to play every game" - but still exerts a talismanic influence in both the corridors of power and the pubs and clubs of Tyneside.

In Robson's defence, the situation is somewhat different to when Gullit left Shearer out of the side. Then, the striker was axed in favour of the untried Paul Robinson.

Patrick Kluivert was his replacement at Villa Park and, during the opening 45 minutes, the Dutch international did enough to merit his inclusion in the side.

His movement was far more fluid than that of Shearer, and the way in which he held off Mark Delaney before slotting home Nicky Butt's through ball showed he has lost none of his striker's instinct.

That goal levelled the scores after Mellberg had been given the freedom of the penalty area from Solano's corner and, after dominating most of the first half, Newcastle took the lead when Andy O'Brien glanced home Craig Bellamy's right-wing cross nine minutes before half-time.

That should have been the cue for a disciplined second-half display but, instead, less than ten minutes of the second half had elapsed when Bowyer needlessly conceded possession, allowing Cole to bundle in at the back post after Shay Given had saved well from Barry.

Newcastle being Newcastle, there was inevitable controversy when referee Mike Riley failed to send off Villa keeper Thomas Sorensen despite him clearly handling the ball outside his area when Bellamy galloped onto Bernard's long pass.

The former Sunderland keeper should have gone - it was a clear handball and Bellamy's lob was heading for goal whether there were defenders around or not - but United's misfortune could not excuse the way they dropped out of the game from that point onwards.

Carr was outjumped by Barry as the left midfielder headed home Solano's cross in the 71st minute, although injuries to Bernard and Kluivert had temporarily reduced Newcastle to nine men.

And Villa then gave the scoreline a more emphatic look when Angel's 83rd-minute strike deflected off O'Brien's foot and looped over a helpless Given.

The keeper was then lucky to stay on the pitch when Riley failed to show him a red card following his frustrated push on Lee Hendrie. As with Sorensen, it was just one more thing that didn't happen.