Lee Bowyer and Kieran Dyer fight: Two sides to the story of extraordinary teammate scrap

Lee Bowyer's 16-month stint in charge of Birmingham is over after he was axed as manager.

He was informed of the decision by club officials after a pre-season training session on Saturday morning. Whilst the Blues only finished two places above the Championship relegation zone last season, Bowyer was largely praised for keeping them in the division amid a glut of off-field concerns.

His removal as manager comes as a slight surprise given the club's owners are in the process of trying to sell the club. But the controversial manner of his exit from St Andrew's is nothing compared to one particular incident from his playing days.

Back in April 2005, Bowyer was involved in a scarcely-believable on-field altercation with a teammate. He and fellow Newcastle midfielder Kieron Dyer came to blows following an innocuous incident in a Premier League game against Villa at St James' Park.

The story goes that Bowyer believed his colleague had refused to pass him the ball. He let out a comment at Dyer who responded and it ended with fists flying and both men shown a straight red by a clearly confused referee Barry Knight. The pair had to be separated by players from both sides and the 52,306 in attendance were left bewildered by what they had witnessed.

The fall-out not only saw bans and fines for both players but they were dragged out to the post-match press conference by then Newcastle manager Graeme Souness like naughty schoolchildren.

"It was a moment of madness. Everybody regretted it afterwards," said Bowyer years later when asked to recall his memories of the incident. Me and Kieron competed all the time for the same position, it was nothing personal.

"It should never have happened. But we are winners. When you play