While the result at Tottenham on Sunday was an excellent result for Newcastle, there was no argument that Tottenham missed chance after chance, and really should have won the game rather easily.

On Wednesday Birmingham were in no such mood to miss chances and decapitated a young Newcastle defense to the silent shock of the Geordie faithful.

This was the worst result for Newcastle in the FA Cup for ninety two years and suddenly the inadequacies in defense - which have been there for a number of years - were shown in stark detail.

Newcastle looked woeful and in truth the score could have been even worse.

What should Newcastle do?

There are a number of defenders available that are better than we currently have at the club. Anton Ferdinand, Matthew Upson, Sylvain Distin and Lucas Neill are four that would improve our defense - but Newcastle seem to be dithering again in the transfer market - as they did in the summer when they failed to add both quailty and quantity to the squad.

I don’t agree with Glenn Roeder that we should only buy young talent - tactical buys are always needed where an experienced player can come in for a couple of years and do the job - particularly when our young defenders need time to develop.

The first thing we need to do to recover from this disastrous result is to win against West Ham at St. James’ Park on Saturday. A win will calm the players (and the fans) - and our league position will be quite good.

A defeat will put us right back where we were a couple of months back - thinking about relegation.

The West Ham game is critical to our season and Roeder knows it.

When Sir Bobby Robson ran the club he was always adamant that after a defeat you come back with a victory and he achieved that many times.

That’s what we need now. The youngsters at Newcastle have shown they can become premiership players but we need a little more experience there - particularly in defense, while they are allowed to mature.

Shepherd needs to come through with the funds to get the 2-3 players we need at the back - and not leave it again to the last minute where we could again be left short.

Now is the time for signings - get the job done Mr. Shepherd - please.