CHRIS HUGHTON has admitted that the Newcastle United squad does not possess sufficient depth to challenge for both FA Cup and Championship honours.

Despite last night having a bid of around £1m accepted for Portsmouth defender Mike Williamson and securing Danny Simpson on a three-yeardeal earlier this week Hughton remains concerned that he can’t compete on two fronts.

Asked if he was confident Newcastle could sustain an FA Cup and promotion campaign, the manager replied: “At this particular moment, no because we do need to bring in players.

“By the end of the transfer window we hope to have brought in the numbers we need for the squad.

“But we have a bit of work to do before then.”

Monday night’s thrilling 2-2 encounter at St James’ Park was labelled the Championship’s match of the season and tomorrow’s FA Cup fourth round tie at West Brom is expected to be another highly competitive affair.

Hughton has confirmed he will keep changes down to a minimum admitting he is wary that defeat in the FA Cup will hand the Baggies a psychological advantage in their promotion bid.

But with a return to the Premier League the number one priority he is concerned that his meagre resources will become over-stretched if they progress to the fifth round draw on Monday.

Williamson hasn’t featured for Pompey since moving from Watford in a £2m deal last September. After Newcastle agreed a fee with the south coast club the 26-yearold defender, who made his name at Wycombe Wanderers, is expected to complete a move to Tyneside.

Hughton said: “There has been an offer made which has been accepted and at the moment we’re just working on the lad’s terms.

“He’s a lad with good pedigree.

He did very, very well at Watford and I have known about him for a while. We were interested in him before he went to Portsmouth but his games have been limited there.”

Hughton also admits that a formal approach has been made to sign versatile defender James Perch from Nottingham Forest but refused to be drawn into a verbal battle with Billy Davies after the Forest boss slammed Newcastle for making their interest public.

Hughton denied emphatically having any interest in Aston Villa’s Curtis Davies and ruled out any possibility of using his family connections to land his son Cian whose exploits as a goal-scoring right back are earning him rave reviews at Lincoln City.

“He’s scoring a few goals so I’ve been told,” quipped proud dad Hughton. “I’m really delighted for him. I’ve seen him play a few times this season, he’s a right-back with a lot of energy who gets up and down the park. He’s just signed a new deal until the end of next season.

“He came through the ranks at Spurs and all he just wants to do is play.”

Hughton was relieved to finally complete the deal for Simpson who is in contention to start tomorrow.

“He’s been a good player for us this season and deserves the contract he’s been given,’’ he said. “He’s still developing and, as with a lot of lads coming form big clubs that don’t play there, they go out on loan and I’d think this is his most consistent period of senior football.

“For that reason and the fact he’s coped with it, he’s capable of getting better.

“It’s vitally important, there’s that balance between not panicking and not just bringing in players for the sake of it, but we know we have to bring players in to give us enough numbers to cope.”

Peter Lovenkrands attended his father’s funeral yesterday and will spend time with his family in Denmark before returning to the squad.