ALAN Pardew saw Steven Taylor's broken nose coming, but Newcastle United's manager must also deal with the unexpected blow of being without Shola Ameobi for four to six weeks.

Having admitted on Thursday centre-back was “one of our weaker areas at the minute”, Sod’s Law dictated one was bound to get injured on Saturday.

Taylor suffered a bang in the face which forced him to twice leave the field to stem the bleeding.

Although Pardew was tight-lipped on Taylor’s availability for tomorrow’s League Cup tie at Blackburn Rovers, he did reveal the defender might be forced to wear a mask, as Ameobi did after fracturing his cheekbone last season.

Pardew (pictured right) acknowledged: “It is the position which is most vulnerable. I almost knew something like that would happen on Saturday. In actual fact, I predicted it before the game.

“I just felt by the law of averages something was not going to go well and that is why I changed the bench.

“I took a striker off in Peter Løvenkrands and brought on a centre-half in James Perch and also put Smithy (Alan Smith) on there because I just felt we might need his experience in that game if it really went astray.

“Luckily it did not and we did not concede a goal or two goals and have to fight back, but I did think it was going to be one of those days.”