KEVIN NOLAN branded the refereeing decisions that cost Newcastle a place in the fifth round of the FA Cup as “an injustice”

and attacked the official for ruining another high octane encounter between the Championship rivals.

Of more immediate concern to manager Chris Hughton, however, is the selection crisis he faces ahead of Wednesday’s league game at home to Crystal Palace.

Newcastle have played down fears that Steven Taylor’s knee problem will sideline him for the rest of the season, but the central defender is not expected to return until March.

New signing Danny Simpson’s leg injury makes him a doubt while right-back Ryan Taylor serves a one-match suspension after being shown a red card at The Hawthorns.

Tamas Kadar’s inexperience was exposed by the Baggies prompting Hughton to step up his search for new recruits with Birmingham’s 30-yearold defender Martin Taylor emerging as a target.

The complexity of Portsmouth’s financial crisis has stymied Hughton’s bid to land Mike Williamson and he is ready to turn his attentions to Ashington-born Taylor, who had a spell on loan at Darlington at the start of the decade.

Hughton admitted to increasing concerns that an absence of defensive cover could disrupt Newcastle’s promotion bid.

“We have gone through the bulk of the season so far without any injuries and we have hit a spell where we have just picked up a few. So that is something we need to assess very quickly,” he confirmed.”

“Do I expect to bring in any new faces this week?

“I sincerely hope so. We have always said that it is a tight squad. I haven’t wanted to have a very big squad because part of what we have here has been built around a spirit with players connecting with each other.

“But we have been fortunate with injuries and we are at the stage where we have just picked up a few.”

Hughton was uncharacteristically livid with the officials during Saturday’s game, which ended his team’s interest in this season’s FA Cup.

After the final whistle the boss recovered his composure but Nolan was more forthright.

The midfielder led the protests during and after a tempestuous afternoon when referee James Linnington awarded West Brom two penalties while denying the Magpies’ repeated claims for a spot kick.

Nolan believed the official’s inept performance had sullied the values of the world’s oldest football competition.

“It’s an injustice what happened.

Not just to us – because we’re not saying we’re going to go on and win the game if we get the penalty – but to the FA Cup too,” he insisted.

“The game was spoiled by decisions and it’s beyond me.

I don’t want to say too much about him (Linnington) because I’ll get in trouble.

“I just think the referee doesn’t deserve to get in the way of two good sides going at it. We had two massive penalty appeals and there’s no doubt about it, they’re both penalties. It was blatant – even their lads know it.

“We have got such a great respect for each other as teams and coaching staffs.

“We both know how hard it is to get out of the league we’re in. Given the sort of respect between the two teams, to see it spoiled by the refereeing decisions was bad. It could have turned out to be a great cup tie. That’s what we all wanted – to see another game like last Monday night,”

confirmed Nolan.

“But we don’t want to take it away from West Brom, who played really, really well. I don’t want to harp on about it but even their lads have said ‘My God, how have we got away with that?’ “No matter what I say, people are going to talk about the referee,” he added.