The two England internationals were involved in the remarkable fight eight minutes from time when Newcastle were already down to 10 men after Steven Taylor had been sent off for handball.

It was a dreadful turnaround for the club only a day after the good news that striker Alan Shearer had decided to play on for another year and both Dyer and Bowyer appeared at a post-match news conference to offer their apologies.

"We would like to apologise to the fans, the chairman, the management staff, all the players, to everyone connected with Newcastle, my family and everybody who witnessed what happened today," said Bowyer, who left the field with a huge rip down the front of his shirt.

"We are sincerely sorry," added the midfielder, no stranger to controversy in his days with former club Leeds United.

Dyer, booed by the Newcastle fans earlier this season for refusing to play out of his preferred position, added: "We are team mates, we have disagreements but we should not be fighting in front of 50,000 people. We are deeply sorry."

Manager Graeme Souness, a renown hard man midfielder for Liverpool and Scotland, said he had never seen such an incident before.

"It's a first for me," "I've never witnessed that before."

Souness said that Dyer appeared to be the innocent party.

"I have been told by Dyer that he did not throw any punches, he was on the receiving end.

"Bowyer was indefensible. He was guilty of throwing more than one punch and has to accept any punishment coming his way."

Souness said that the two players would be subject to internal discipline but said he expected both to continue playing at the club.

"I can envisage both of them playing again, but if it ever happened again that would be it for the pair of them, they've hurt the customers today."

Souness said that frustration at the way the game was going and at penalty decisions - one not awarded to Newcastle and one of the two that did go to Villa - were probably a factor.

"Anyone who sees those pictures will find it hard to understand how team mates act like that," he said.

"I'm not condoning what they did in any way but the referee had a very disappointing game today and the frustration our players felt going down 3-0 has shown itself with someone wanting to go boxing.