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Kieron Dyer has opened up about his onfield punch-up with Lee Bowyer.

The pair came to blows during a 3-0 home defeat against Aston Villa in 2005 when they heaped shame on Newcastle United.

Dyer says that it was a personal insult aimed at Bowyer’s lack of ability that pushed him over the edge.

The former Toon star said: “We were playing the game, he came short and wanted the ball and I passed to someone else.

“He was like ‘Give me the ball’ and I was like ‘I haven’t given the ball away, what you talking about’. Five minutes later he came again and I gave it to somebody else.

“And he said, ‘You never pass to me!’ I said, ‘The reason I don’t pass to you is because you’re **** basically’.

“There were a lot of swear words. And that was it then you just saw him lose his head.

“He said, ‘You what?’ And I said, ‘You heard me.’

“As he was walking towards me I just thought he was going to grab me or push me.

“When he was raining the punches in I thought, ‘You need to get on the weights because they aren’t hurting.’

“Secondly, I was thinking ‘I can’t believe he’s doing this in front of 50,000 people’.”

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The spat continued in the dressing room, and Dyer revealed that Jean Alain Boumsong told the pair to fight it out in the dressing room – before they backed down when Graeme Souness offered to fight them both!

Dyer said: “I didn’t know you could get sent off for fighting your own team-mate, so when the red card came out I thought, ‘What the hell!’

“I was sent off first and I was waiting in the tunnel to get some revenge. He came in, and we had two massive masseurs and they just dunked us on their shoulders.

“It was like a cartoon when your feet are dangling off the ground and we were trying to get at each other. We are sat in the changing room and they were in the middle of us.

“I was thinking how I could get to him. Then we heard the final whistle.

“Boumsong came in and said, ‘If you want to fight, fight now.’ I was wanting to fight and get the revenge.

“Then Souness came in and said, ‘If you want to fight I’ll beat both of you.’ Al came in and I never saw him lose it like that – he went mad and called us selfish and a disgrace. He knew we’d have a three-match suspension and miss the FA Cup semi-final that was coming up.”

Dyer has since patched things up with Bowyer.

He said: “I still see him now, we are friends. That’s just the way Lee was. But I still want to beat him up.”