'Black day' for Newcastle

Newcastle United's chairman Freddy Shepherd will meet his manager Graeme Souness and warring players Lee Bowyer and Kieron Dyer this morning to decide if the controversial pair still have a future at St James' Park.

The club have the power to sack one or both of Bowyer and Dyer after Saturday's ugly punch-up between the two in the last 10 minutes of Newcastle's home defeat by Aston Villa. But Shepherd said yesterday: "I need to see them face to face before making any decisions. There will be no kangaroo court and I don't want to speculate on anyone's future at this stage."

Coming so soon after the announcement of Alan Shearer's contract extension, Shepherd spoke candidly yesterday of his despair at seeing this latest controversy unfold. "I am deeply embarrassed, hurt and angry," Shepherd said. "I could hardly believe what my eyes were telling me. It was a black day for Newcastle United and the worst day I've experienced as chairman of this football club. I never thought I'd see two of our own players fighting.

"We have our half-year results at 7.30 in the morning, so I will be at St James' Park first thing. After that I will be speaking to Graeme Souness and the two players."

Gross misconduct is the charge that would be used to justify a dismissal and Gordon Taylor, chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association, admitted yesterday: "In exceptional cases players can be sacked." Northumbria police will also liaise with the club this week over the incident.

Bowyer is the more likely to be sweating on such an outcome as he is being seen as the aggressor in the fight that shook St James'. It is, though, more probable that both players will be fined six weeks' wages - the maximum fine the club can impose.

Dyer has other recent turbulence at the club to be considered; earlier this season he was given a "final" warning by Souness after being caught urinating in a city-centre alley and taken to a police station - and, though the manager publicly backed the pair on Saturday night, it would be no surprise to see both leaving Newcastle in the summer, if not before.

The players have become an embarrassment to the club and can ask for a transfer or concede to a mutually agreed separation. Dyer has only one year left on his contract and has not shown enthusiasm about signing an extension.

The immediate punishment the players face from the FA is a three-game domestic ban, unless Newcastle appeal. Dyer protested his innocence but TV pictures contradicted this view. Dyer may have been defending himself but his fists were raised. Bowyer left the pitch with his nose bloodied and his shirt torn.

The second of Newcastle's next three matches is the FA Cup semi-final in Cardiff against Manchester United. Newcastle's motivation on Saturday seemed to be to get Dyer's ban reduced to a one-match suspension so he could play in Cardiff. It might have been anticipated that the damage done to Newcastle's reputation would have overridden such matters - but this is the club that signed Bowyer and Jonathan Woodgate after their controversial court cases.

Newcastle have only the next few hours to decide whether to appeal Dyer's automatic ban, though the FA has the power to increase as well as rescind it.

Any existing tension between the England internationals had not manifested itself previously, though there was a minor disagreement over a non-pass from Dyer in the first half of this match. Bowyer made his feelings known then and would use statistics showing Dyer made 36 passes on Saturday with only one going to Bowyer, to illustrate a pattern.

When the same thing happened in the 82nd minute Bowyer began haranguing Dyer. As the two converged Dyer stood his ground and Bowyer led with the forehead, then started punching. There appears no racial context to the fight but a feature of Saturday's public apology, demanded by Shearer, was that neither Bowyer nor Dyer apologised to each other. Newcastle have now to decide if they can ever be in the same team again.