When the storm broke at St James’ a day later, Shearer did his best to calm Bowyer after Gareth Barry and Stephen Carr had succeeded in prising apart the two combatants. The Newcastle captain had seen it all before, of course, having been a member of the Blackburn team when Graeme Le Saux and David Batty came to blows during a Champions’ League defeat away to Spartak Moscow in November 1995.For Newcastle fans, it was all depressing d? vu stuff. Both will be available, although Bowyer may be sacrificially dropped, at least to the substitutes’ bench.It is a test of managerial mettle that Souness could not have feared in his wildest nightmares when he sat in the press room last Friday and reflected on his coup of persuading Alan Shearer to play on for another season. He is also going to need his best players and, on recent form, Dyer and Bowyer have been prominently among them. The Uefa Cup was always likely to be the more promising source of silverware for Newcastle and it now looks to be their only realistic one, with Bowyer and Dyer certain to be banned from the FA Cup clash in Cardiff on Sunday week.With the home leg of their quarter-final against Sporting Lisbon on Thursday – and the second leg in Portugal a week later – Souness is going to need a strong, united playing force for those crucial 90 minutes. “I’m not going to tell you what was said in the dressing room afterwards, but I think we’ll be stronger as a playing force at this club because of today.” Having seen his side take a giant step backwards from a relative sea of tranquillity at St James’, Souness will need to summon that strength between now and 7.45pm on Thursday if he is to stop another Newcastle season ending in broken dreams, not to mention a fractured dressing room.It was difficult enough to imagine Souness’s men getting past Manchester United in their FA Cup semi-final even before the outbreak of pugilistic hostilities between Lee Bowyer and Kieron Dyer in the 81st minute on Saturday, when the former took exception to the latter’s failure to furnish him with possession. The introduction of Kevin Phillips invigorated Southampton’s attack and Petr Cech did well to tip his header over on 69 minutes.
The corner was taken short to Paul Telfer and his cross was turned in by Phillips.Mateja Kezman’s ineffectual contribution was ended on 64 minutes when Didier Drogba came on and he was part of a sweet four-pass move that found Gudjohnsen in the box to add the third. As if in preparation for his Uefa ban, Mourinho had nothing to say after the match.Goals: Lampard (22) 0-1, Gudjohnsen (39) 0-2, Phillips (69) 1-2, Gudjohnsen (83) 1-3.Southampton (4-4-2): Niemi; Delap, Lundekvam, Jakobsson, Bernard; Telfer, Redknapp, Quashie, Le Saux (Svensson, 63); Crouch, Camara (Phillips, 63). Substitutes not used: Smith (gk), Higginbotham, Davenport.Chelsea (4-1-4-1): Cech; Johnson, Huth, Terry, Gallas; Makelele; Cole (Tiago, h-t), Lampard, Gudjohnsen, Duff (Jarosik, 80); Kezman (Drogba, 64). When the red mist had lifted, and the duelling Magpies had made their apologies and left their would-be peacemaker alone on the stage in the press room at St James’ Park, Graeme Souness still looked like a man who had gone 10 rounds with Vitali Klitschko.
He began his appraisal of the Chelsea coach with a telling tactical detail that is typical of Mourinho: the switch that saw Ricardo Carvalho dropped in favour of the taller Robert Huth to deal with the aerial threat of Peter Crouch.”Carvalho is a fantastic player but he’s only 6ft and I was looking for Crouch to be playing on to him all game but he brought in Huth who is 6ft 4in,” Redknapp said “That was a clever move I saw Mourinho before the game and I like him very much He’s a good guy He’s got something about him. I get real pleasure out of seeing him play because I’ve seen him grow up since he was a baby.”With six minutes to play before half-time, a run from Glen Johnson at right-back took him past four players and he cut the ball back for Eidur Gudjohnsen to slot home Chelsea’s second. “I’ve never seen anybody work so hard on the training ground as Frank – except for his dad His dad has instilled that in him. However, the Southampton manager will have taken quiet pleasure in an excellent performance from his son, Jamie, who, for much of the game, outshone his celebrated younger cousin, Lampard.”I knew Frank was always going to be a top player because of his attitude and the way he worked at his game but I didn’t know how good he would become,” Redknapp said.
“No disrespect but they haven’t got anybody else who is very vocal. He’s a bit of a one-man band, isn’t he?”It is Redknapp who Mourinho can thank for nurturing the precious talent of Frank Lampard at West Ham and it was the England midfielder who opened the scoring with a deflected free-kick on 22 minutes. “They feel more confident if he’s there because they know he can put things right,” Redknapp said. If Jose Mourinho has felt isolated of late within the hierarchy of his own club then on Saturday he at least found acceptance from a man who has come to define the institution of traditional English football management.
As they disappeared down the tunnel at St Mary’s at full-time, Harry Redknapp threw an arm around the shoulders of the Chelsea coach and, for a moment, all the studied aloofness and proud resistance that has characterised Mourinho melted away.