Whole new brawl game for Souness

IT was a punch-up that brought humiliation on Newcastle United and had the Toon manager threatening to fight both his bad-boy stars in the dressing room. Kieron Dyer and Lee Bowyer came to blows in the final stages of Newcastle’s 3-0 home defeat by Aston Villa in April 2005. They were both red-carded for violent conduct as Toon ended the game with eight men – centre-back Stephen Taylor had already been sent off for deliberate hand-ball. Dyer recalled: “He came short and wanted the ball and I passed to someone else. “He was moaning and, five minutes later, he came again and I gave it to somebody else again. “He said ‘You never pass to me!’ I said ‘The reason I don’t pass to you is because you’re **** .’ “As he was walking towards me I thought he was just going to grab me or push me. “When he was throwing the punches in I thought ‘You need to get on the weights because they aren’t hurting.’ “I was also thinking ‘I can’t believe he’s doing this in front of 50,000 people’.” The row continued in the dressing room with Toon medical staff keeping the warring pair apart. Teammate Jean-alain Boumsong told the pair to fight it out but boss Graeme Souness (left) took a different view. Dyer recalled: “Souness came in and said ‘If you want to fight I’ll beat both of you.’ “Both players were handed three-match bans. The FA fined Bowyer £30,000 and imposed an additional three-game ban, and the club fined him six weeks’ wages. Dyer was not fined as Bowyer was seen to have thrown the first punch. Bowyer was charged by Northumbria Police under section four of the Public Order Act. He pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of using threatening behaviour and was fined £600 and ordered to pay £1,000 costs.