Iconic Moments in Football No.62
This week’s ‘Iconic Moment’‘ comes from the Premier League match between Newcastle United and Aston Villa in the 2004/05 season.
In the 80th minute, home side Newcastle trailing 3-0 and were being completely outplayed by their visitors, two of their players brought shame to the club by fighting.
Frustrations had already started to boil over in St James’s Park with the booing from the home fans getting louder as each goal went in. No doubt fingers were being pointed and blame being apportioned amongst the Newcastle players.
Then out of the blue, Lee Bowyer and Kieron Dyer started grappling with one another off the ball!
Bowyer landed two punches on Dyer twice who retaliated with a punch back. They were grabbing each other around the neck until finally Newcastle’s Stephen Carr and and Villa’s Gareth Barry were able to separate the two.
The fight was over in a matter of seconds but made both front and back pages of the newspapers. The enduring image of Barry holding Lee Bowyer back as the Newcastle man is still seething with the front of his shirt ripped almost completely down the front.
Both players were sent off for violent conduct. Steven Taylor had already been given a red card for handling on the goalline; leaving Newcastle to play out the last ten minutes with eight men!
Kieron Dyer was suspended for three matches and Bowyer was slapped with a seven match ban. Newcastle were knocked out of the UEFA Cup and FA Cup in this time and only won one of their final eight games in the Premier League.
Bowyer left the club the following summer and rejoined West Ham United, the club Newcastle had signed him from only three years before. Dyer stayed at Newcastle until 2007 before joining Bowyer at West Ham!
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