Forget Moyes v Hughes: Here's MirrorFootball's Top 10 football bust-ups

Published 17:22 18/08/09

As Mark Hughes and David Moyes prepare to fight to the death over the fair Joleon Lescott, Football Banter thought this an opportune moment to recall 10 of the top-most flare-ups that have taken place on the football field.

1) Keegan v Bremner, August 1974
The 1974 Charity Shield proved to be anything but friendly as this curtain-raiser to the new season saw both Liverpool's Kevin Keegan and Billy Bremner of Leeds given their marching orders at Wembley. Unimpressed by Keegan's bleating at numerous refereeing decisions Johnny Giles took it upon himself to punch the England striker in the face. Bremner joined in with a few choice expletives prompting Keegan, who thought it was the Leeds captain who had punched him rather than Giles, to attempt retaliation. Proper punches were then exchanged between the two before they could be separated and sent off. It was a sign of the times that neither player thought they deserved to be dismissed and each threw their shirt off in disgust before trudging down the tunnel.

2) Collymore v Todd, October 1997
Stan Collymore was playing for Aston Villa when his heckles were raised by hard man Andy Todd in the last minute of a league match at Bolton. Collymore claimed that Todd had racially abused him while the defender insisted the Villa man had elbowed him in the noggin. Either way, the two had it out in the centre circle much to the disdain of Graham Poll, who inevitably sent them for an early bath.

3) Burdisso v Marchena and Navarro, March 2007
Valencia's Carlos Marchena and Nicolas Burdisso of Inter Milan were happily trading insults and punches at the end of the second leg of the appropriately-named first knockout round of the Champion League when unused substitute David Navarro raced onto the field like an escapee from the local borstall. Navarro lamped Burdisso in the face before running away, with several Inter players in hot pursuit. The scramash continued in the tunnel as irate Italians attempted to storm the Valencia dressing room to avenge Burdisso, whose nose had been broken in the attack.

4) Leeds v Derby, February 1975
They weren't called 'Dirty Leeds' for nothing. Indeed the likes of Norman 'Bite Yer Legs' Hunter were very well paid for maiming opposing strikers at the first opportunity. But, much like Keegan, Francis Lee was another diminutive striker who refused to be intimidated by the bad boys. After taking exception to another late Hunter tackle Lee pushed the defender, who immediately pushed him back, whereupon Lee stuck him one. Hunter replied in kind, splitting little Lee's lip. The pair were soon dismissed but it didn't end there for while the ref was writing their names in his book, they went at it again, little Lee comically swinging at thin air before he was ushered away from the scene by coaching staff.

5) Le Saux v Batty, November 1995
It's bad enough when the oppo are giving it large when the ref's not looking but spare a thought for everyone's favourite Guardian reader Graeme Le Saux, who was on the receiving end of a tirade of abuse from his very own team-mate during a Champions League match. So what did Le Saux do? Hit David Batty in the face, that's what. He didn't do it again, though. Not because he was scared of the fiery Yorkshireman, though but because the England full-back struck Batty so hard he broke his own hand.

6) Bowyer v Dyer, April 2005
Another item for the 'one not to show your grandchildren' collection features 'team-mates' Lee Bowyer and Kieron Dyer, who also came to blows during a match in which the Magpies found themselves - unusually in those days - 3-0 down and reduced to 10 men. Bowyer, not for the first time in his colourful career, resorted to fisticuffs, d eploying Dyer as a human punchbag until the pair were separated. Bowyer was fined six weeks' wages and both players were subjected to a humiliating press conference in which they grovelled to supporters.

7) Fuller v Griffin, December 2008
Compared to what has gone before this was a relatively tame incident but yet another example of team-mates getting the hump with each other. Stoke striker Ricardo Fuller was so unimpressed by the abject defending of Andy Griffin that led to West Ham's equaliser that he was still seething about it before the re-start. Instead of kicking off Fuller decided to walk towards Griffin and, after divesting himself of his favourite Jamaican idioms, slapped Griffin in the face . Fuller was promptly dismissed to the delight of Griffin - and West Ham - who went on to won the match 2-1.

8) The Battle of Santiago, June 1962
Italian journalists had done little to ingratiate themselves with the locals by giving a damning report of Chile's capital city at the 1962 World Cup and so the hosts responded by giving the Azzurri a welcome they would never forget . Their first foul was committed after just 12 seconds and such was the provocation in the Santiago bear-pit that Giorgio Ferrini found himself being sent off for retaliatory action eight minutes in. Ferrini refused to go but after an eight-minute delay play resumed in time for Chile's Leonel Sanchez to floor Mario David with a haymaker. David responded by kicking Sanchez in the neck, and before the match was over Italy's Humberto Maschio was also hit on the nose by Eladio Rojas.

9) Eric Cantona v mindless Palace yob, January 1995
Cantona had already been red-carded for kicking out at Richard Shaw in a fraught match at Selhurst Park but that was nothing compared to what he reserved for the lout who subjected him to some choice south London jargon. As he was being led to the tunnel the Frenchman morphed into Steven Seagull, launching himself at the offending supporter with a kung-fu kick and then punching him for good measure. Cantona was banned for nine months for his attack but the National Front-supporting victim, Matthew Simmonds, a convicted criminal, was himself jailed - albeit for a day - for threatening language and behaviour.

10) Wenger v Pardew, November 2006
Arsene Wenger is the last manager you would imagine getting involved in a set-two in public but he almost came to blows with Alan Pardew at Upton Park. Pardew, understandably excited at a late goal by Marlon Harewood - (any goal by Marlon Harewood) - decided to take his celebrations a touch too far - gesticulating within a baguette's length of the Frenchman's nasal hair. Wenger reacted by pushing the Hammers boss , who had the audacity to push him back and an unseemly incident was disappointingly avoided by interfering officials.

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