Shepherd considered sacking Bowyer for bust-up

NEWCASTLE chairman Freddie Shepherd admitted he considered sacking Lee Bowyer and believes the midfielder "should go down on his hands and knees" in the wake of his on-field fight with team-mate Kieron Dyer.

Bowyer was fined six weeks' wages, amounting to £200,000 (€291,000), by the club yesterday - the maximum penalty available to Newcastle short of terminating his contract.

But Shepherd has admitted he came close to sacking the player, a controversial signing when he joined from West Ham two years ago.

He said: "We certainly considered sacking Bowyer. We could have done - it was gross misconduct. But we thought a fine and a final warning was fitting."

Asked if Bowyer should consider himself lucky he was still a Newcastle player, Shepherd replied: "He should go down on his hands and knees."

Bowyer was also warned as to his future conduct and will sit out the FA Cup semi-final clash with Manchester United, as well as Premiership trips to Tottenham, Norwich and Old Trafford as a result of an automatic four-match ban because of an earlier sending-off at Liverpool.

Shepherd stopped short of admitting he regretted signing Bowyer, a player with a history of controversy whose move to Newcastle saw the club criticised by fans and in the media.

But he said: "It was the right thing to do for the club at the time but hindsight is a great management tool."

The chairman said he believed Bowyer, 28, was the aggressor in the incident that saw both players dismissed and exonerated Dyer, whose red card the club hope to overturn.

"He (Dyer) was attacked and he certainly didn't provoke the incident, it was down to Bowyer," he said.

"What would anybody do? He had three options. He could have stood there with his hands by his side or he could have defended himself or he could have run away. Standing with his hands by his side wasn't an option, running away wasn't an option so he had to defend himself."

He added: "Dyer's had the raw edge of this."

Dyer faces a three-match ban for violent conduct unless he can persuade an FA disciplinary commission that he did not throw a punch, and would also miss the semi-final. His appeal could be heard today.

Souness, who sat between Bowyer and Dyer on Saturday night as they made their initial apologies, attempted to draw a line under the matter after the meeting drew to a close.

"I am looking forward to training with these two today as we have a very big game on Thursday," he said.

"It is a deeply regrettable incident and I can assure fans we will be focused from now until the end of the season. We have everything to play for and it is now about trying to win a trophy for this club. They have been speaking to each other over the weekend and have managed to have a laugh about it.

"They do regret what has happened, but we just want to put the incident behind us now."