Blackburn defender Lucas Neill remains unrepentant over the tackle that broke Jamie Carragher's leg and insisted that he will not change his hard-hitting game.
Neill's horrific two-footed tackle in Liverpool's 3-1 victory over Rovers will keep Carragher out of action for up to six months and has lead to a furious war-of-words between the two sides, however Neill insists that he will keep playing aggresive football, and claimed that Liverpool are "trying to drag my name through the mud."
The Australian international said: "I just hope that I'm not considered the bad boy of football, because there's no way I'm a bad boy. They're trying to drag my name through the mud a little bit, but if there's another 50-50 situation, I'm going to go in and I'm going to go in committed and hard."
"I'm not going to go in to hurt anybody. I'm going to go in and tackle and win the ball for my team, and I stand by that. If there's ever a tackle to be made, I'll go in for it. I might get hurt out of it, but I'll still go in and I'll do it for the good of the team," he added.
Blackburn manager Graeme Souness also reacted angrily to suggestions that he is bitter towards Liverpool, following his failed stint as a manager there, and went as far to demand an apology from Liverpool boss Gerard Houllier.
Souness said: "How could I possibly have any dislike for Liverpool? As a player some of the best memories I've had in football came at Liverpool. I'll be looking for an apology from him because I think I've been treated unfairly by him."
Filed by Rob Wright
