Why Newcastle must reveal the truth about the Carroll-Taylor fight

By Brian McNally

Published 13:36 26/03/10

• 

Follow Brian McNally on Twitter

The wall of silence Newcastle United have erected over the latest Andy Carroll controversy may have helped them win a football match at Doncaster this week but it does their reputation absolutely no good whatsoever.

By failing to come clean on the incident that left their defender Steven Taylor with a broken jaw on Sunday they are guilty of moral cowardice.

And it contrasts strangely with their attitude to previous indiscretions committed  by Carroll and others.

We were told back in 2008 that such was Mike Ashley's disgust with Joey Barton's penchant for thumping people that the owner wanted to kick him out of the club despite the then manager Kevin Keegan's protests.

And when Carroll was charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm in December after a man was allegedly glassed in a Newcastle night club, Carroll was dropped from the Newcastle team.

I actually thought then that Newcastle were making a principled stand against the thuggery that has blackened the club's name for far too long.

But, sadly,it seems that the Newcastle top brass believe that by saying nothing about the Taylor incident the inevitable repercussions will somehow go away.

I can promise them that the truth about what was a cowardly assault on Taylor will come out. Too many people witnessed the incident for the facts to be permanently hidden.

The player has remained silent about exactly how his jaw was broken but I am convinced that justice and truth will prevail in the end.

Secret texts, money taunts and a broken jaw: How Carroll and Taylor had a fight on the Toon

A History Of Toon Violence: Top 10 Newcastle fights and flare-ups  

Fancy winning £3,000 for FREE this month? Play Mirror Football Streak for your chance to win cash prizes! Start predicting now!