NEWCASTLE United are poised to make a move for Blackburn Rovers central defender Christian Dailly.

The Premiership club have major defensive problems and are believed to see Dailly as an answer to their dilemma.

Newcastle watched the Scottish international in action when he came off the Rovers bench at Bramall Lane on Friday night and are expected to follow up with a formal approach.

Dailly has lost his place in the Blackburn side in recent weeks and Rovers would be likely to accept a bid in the region of £3 million.

Manager Graeme Souness has already recruited Henning Berg on loan from Manchester United and has tabled a bid for St Etienne's Cameroon defender Lucien Mettomo in an effort to stiffen up his defence.

That deal is still struggling to get off the ground despite Rovers' best efforts.

And if nothing happens in the near future Souness may have to set his sights elsewhere.

But with Martin Taylor preferred to Dailly in the absence of the injured Craig Short for Friday night's 2-0 defeat at Sheffield United, it would appear that Souness doesn't see Dailly, who was signed from Derby County for £5.3 million in August, 1998, as the answer to his lingering defensive worries.

The Scot had been seen as a possible factor in a swap-deal to bring Celtic's Eyal Berkovic to Ewood Park but nothing is currently progressing on that front with Celtic boss Martin O'Neill asking Berkovic to bide his time at Celtic Park Newcastle could therefore have a free run on Dailly, if the 26-year-old wants to move.

Having sold Steve Howey to Manchester City, the Geordies were stretched for defensive options at Southampton on Saturday in the absence of Nikos Dabizas and Marcelino.

Aaron Hughes and Alain Goma are currently filling the roles but Bobby Robson clearly sees Dailly as an attractive alternative.

Rovers would presumably be happier selling Dailly with a replacement already in place and Mettomo is still top of the shopping list -- for the time being at least.

Souness said: "The offer is still on the table, and we should have a better idea of what's happening today. We are prepared to wait a little longer, but if we don't hear in the next couple of days, we will pull the plug on it.

"We have other irons in the fire and are actively pursuing these other areas."

And that message was echoed by Ewood chief executive John Williams.

Williams onfirmed that conversations have continued to take place in an effort to kick-start the transfer.

However, he admitted: "Graeme and the board have taken the view that if it hasn't moved on in the next couple of days we will call it a day.

"Our manager is very keen to get him and we would like to get him for the manager. We have a good record of getting players for our managers but some things you can't always do.

"But we haven't thrown the towel in."

Rover' Academy sides had mixed fortunes over the weekend with the under-19s going down 2-1 at Huddersfield but the under-17s celebrating a 3-2 win at Bolton.

John Walters got a last-minute goal for the under-17s after Andrew Bell and Anthony Martin had scored earlier.

The under-19s' goal came from Neil Danns.