It remains one of the most shocking moments of the Premier League era: Kieron Dyer and Lee Bowyer, two Newcastle United teammates, having a fight in the middle of the pitch before both receiving straight red cards.
Bowyer became increasingly frustrated with Dyer for failing to pass him the ball during a home match against Aston Villa. Dyer, angered by Bowyer moaning at him, responded by saying that he wasn’t passing him the ball because he was “f***ing s***”.
This caused Bowyer to go crazy. The midfielder swung a couple of punches at his teammate before the pair were eventually pulled apart by players from both Newcastle and Villa.
Dyer has reminisced over the incident on the latest edition of the True Geordie Podcast this week.
The entire three-hour episode is fascinating but the section on his fight with Bowyer is particularly entertaining.
Dyer reveals that Jean-Alain Boumsong rushed into the dressing room immediately after the final whistle in the hope of seeing them continue their fight.
Dyer still remembers what Shearer said in the dressing room
But Dyer will never forget what Alan Shearer, the club captain at the time, said when he entered the dressing room moments later.
“That’s the angriest I’ve ever seen him,” Dyer said of Shearer. "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’.
“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’.
“The I’m thinking ‘oh, f***ing hell!’”
Watch Dyer talk about Shearer’s reaction by skipping to 2 hours, 6 minutes…
Watch MOTD's coverage of the incident here
There’s a brilliant clip on YouTube of Match of the Day’s coverage of the incident which includes the infamous apology from Dyer and Bowyer, with Souness in the middle.
Watch it here…
What a truly remarkable day that was.