Newcastle United: It was chaos in dressing room after Lee Bowyer vs Kieron Dyer fight in 2005 | OneFootball

In terms of the most shocking incidents in Premier League history, the on-pitch fight between Newcastle United teammates Kieron Dyer and Lee Bowyer in April 2005 is right up there.

The pair exchanged blows in the middle of St James’ Park, three minutes after Aston Villa had taken a 3-0 lead against the Magpies, when Bowyer’s angry complaints that Dyer wouldn’t pass him the ball led to him being told: ‘The reason I don’t pass you the ball is because you’re f****** s***’.

Both players were shown straight red cards as Newcastle, managed by the fearsome Graeme Souness at the time, were reduced to nine men.

Players from both teams tried to break up the fight but got there too late. Punches were thrown, Bowyer’s shirt was ripped and the teammates were dismissed in disgrace.

“You don’t want to see that happen on the pitch, it’s only right to try and break it up,” Villa midfielder Gareth Barry said after the match, per BBC Sport.

“I’ve never seen it in a game I’ve been involved in, there was obviously a lot of frustration boiling over.

“If you look at the two players involved they just want to do everything to win the game. Both players lost their head and it’s unfortunate but I’m sure they regret it.”

What did Jean-Alain Boumsong say to Dyer and Bowyer?

Speaking years later on the True Geordie Podcast, Dyer revealed what happened afterwards inside the dressing room – and it was pure chaos.

“We’re still calling each other p****s, all sorts, and you hear the final whistle go,” Dyer recalled. “When you hear the studs in the tunnel, you can hear them coming. But there was just one set of studs *sprinting* up the tunnel.

“You’re thinking who the hell’s that? It was [Jean-Alain] Boumsong. Boumsong’s like: ‘You want to fight?! Fight now!’

“I’m thinking in my head: ‘Yeah, I’ll fight him now. I want some revenge!’”

What did Alan Shearer say to Dyer and Bowyer?

The rest of the Newcastle players soon followed, including captain Alan Shearer, who was livid.

Dyer continued: “And then the other lads, including Al, come in – and that’s most angry I’ve ever seen Al.

“He was like: ‘You f***ing selfish p****s!’ – going, honestly, mad.

“But he obviously knew this was his last season. I think he agreed for the season after but we were in the FA Cup semi-final and he knew we’d be suspended, so he’s f***ing raging.

“I didn’t realise at the time, so from anger I’ve then gone to feeling ‘oh f***, I’ve let the team down again’.”

What did Graeme Souness say to Dyer and Bowyer?

Souness was next to get involved.

Dyer said: “Then [Graeme] Souness comes in and says ‘I’m now going outside to the media to watch the incident, if I think I know what I’ve seen then I will fight the pair of you’.

“Then I’m thinking ‘oh, f***ing hell!’”

“I’ve gone from anger to ‘here we go again, I’ve won the Geordies back and now I’m back to square one, I cannot believe what is happening to me’.

“Souness has watched it, come back in and he just rips into Bowyer. He tells me I’m exempt and says to Bowyer: ‘What the f*** are you doing!?’.”

What did Freddy Shepherd say to Dyer and Bowyer?

Dyer will never forget the words of the club’s chairman, Freddy Shepherd, who passed away in 2017.

“Then Freddy comes down and I’ll never forget it,” the former England international said. “This is the chairman of a football club. He comes down and says to me: ‘You should have headbutted him! What he did to you, how you showed such much refrain, you should have headbutted him!’

“So then they’re all piling in on Bowyer and I’ve gone from feeling sorry for myself to feeling sorry for Bowyer because he’s getting all the s**t.

“They were telling him he had to take six weeks wages or he’d be sacked, so I’m feeling sorry for him now.”

What happened after the Dyer and Bowyer fight?

Bowyer and Dyer flanked a seething Souness in the post-match press conference and each issued an apology.

Souness described Bowyer’s actions as “indefensible” and the midfielder was handed a seven-game ban by the Football Association, plus a £30,000 fine on top of being fined six weeks’ wages by his club – estimated to be around £200,000.

Dyer, meanwhile, served a three-match suspension after the FA rejected Newcastle’s appeal against his red card.