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Newcastle chairman to issue final warning

Newcastle's brawling midfielder Lee Bowyer
Newcastle's brawling midfielder Lee Bowyer

Newcastle chairman Freddy Shepherd will summon Lee Bowyer and Kieron Dyer to his office tomorrow morning to deliver the final of final warnings.

A crowd of 52,306 at St James' Park on Saturday – and millions more on television since - witnessed Bowyer and Dyer go toe-to-toe and punch-for-punch in a disgraceful bust-up.

Both will miss the FA Cup semi-final clash with Manchester United on April 17 and both will know they have severely dented their club's hopes of ending a 36-year wait for a trophy.

Neither needed what happened yesterday, although the two men are close and Souness is confident there will be no lasting problem between them.

"It's fine, it's fine, there is not a problem between them,"  he said.

"There is not a problem between any of them. I have not witnessed it before, I have not witnessed it with this group before."

Bobby Robson believes the duo failed to apologise properly for their disgraceful behaviour at St James' Park yesterday.

Robson, axed as United boss earlier this season, today said the pair should have shaken hands to send out the correct message to football fans in general.

Although both sat in front of the television cameras after the fracas in the 3-0 defeat to Aston Villa and admitted they were sorry to the management, hierarchy, other players and supporters, they did not apologise to each other.

Robson told the BBC: "It is rare that you find two players of the same team slugging it out with each other, it is very unfortunate.

"They have apologised to the chairman, rightly so, to Graeme Souness and to the team.

"I just felt it would have been nice if both players had shaken hands on camera for the public to realise it was on the spur of the moment and they would get on with their lives together, hopefully."

Meanwhile, Gordon Taylor, chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association, has revealed the pair could be sacked by the Magpies.

"The sack is always open to an employer if employee behaviour has gone on which is gross misconduct," Taylor said.

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