Newcastle Crash As Players Fight Each Other!
4/2/2005 6:01:00 PM
Newcastle have crashed to a 3-0 defeat at home to Aston Villa and finished the match with just eight men on the field after one of the most extraordinary scenes ever witnessed in the Premiership.
The Magpies were already trailing 3-0 and had had Stephen Taylor sent off for deliberate hand ball when midfielders Kieron Dyer and Lee Bowyer weer both sent off for fighting each other. The 'team-mates' squared up in an off the ball incident and punches were thrown before opposition players seperated them.
The incident left an already-irate Graeme Souness seething with his own players and the referee, who had early awarded two penalties to the visitors.
The nightmate afternoon started badly for the home side as Juan Pablo Angel opened the scoring after just five minutes.
Villa scored the crucial second goal from the spot after Taylor had handled the ball on the goalline to deny Darius Vassell a goal. The chance came about after a mistake from Stephen Carr and Taylor, who was a second half substitute, had to go.
Gareth Barry made no mistake from the penalty spot and he made it two out of two seven minutes later when David O'Leary's side were awarded another spot-kick. This decision seemed especially harsh as Carr was judged to have fouled Vassell.