Craig Bellamy is branded a “little upstart” by Terry McDermott

Terry McDermott began his career playing at Bury, earning himself a move to Newcastle United before Bob Paisley came calling and took him to Liverpool. He then went back to Newcastle, meaning that his relationship with those two clubs was set in stone and he was beloved by both sets of fans. When his playing career ended, he went into management and worked as an assistant, starting that back at St. James’ Park with his beloved Magpies. It is clear, then, that that’s where his allegiance lay when Newcastle came up against Liverpool.

You would think that a player that had enjoyed a not dissimilar journey to him might have his sympathy, but that is far from the case as far as Craig Bellamy was concerned. The diminutive Welshman had always wound people up during his playing days, making him the sort of player that you loved when he was on your side but hated when he was playing against you. Having played for Newcastle United for four years, he headed to Liverpool in 2006 and that was where he got up to mischief, provoking McDermott’s ire.

A ‘Little Upstart’

If you want a sign of how much Craig Bellamy wound people up, you only need to look at how it was that he ended up on loan at Celtic. The striker performed well during his four-year spell at Newcastle United, scoring 28 goals in 93 games. His fiery personality was eventually too much for the manager at the time, Graeme Souness, in spite of the fact that Souness himself was a strong character during his playing days. The result was that he was sent off to Celtic on loan, getting him away from his Scottish manager.

Terry McDermott came back to Newcastle as assistant manager in 2005, meaning that the two barely worked together, with Bellamy being sold to Blackburn Rovers that summer. Even so, it’s not as though the people involved in the club didn’t know the sort of thing that Bellamy was likely to get up to when playing against them, but perhaps they never bothered to inform McDermott about his behaviour. So it was that the player who won three European Cups and five titles with Liverpool was wound up royally by Bellamy during a match between the two sides.

The incident that got McDermott’s goal occurred when the Magpies’ assistant manager was having a conversation with the referee, Mark Halsey, only to be interrupted by Bellamy. Speaking after the matter, McDermott said, “It had nothing to do with anyone else and I take exception to little upstarts like him. He was 100 per cent out of order. Everywhere he has been he has been in bother and it is starting again at Liverpool.” Not that Liverpool supporters would agree, given the fact that the Welshman helped the team win the League Cup and making the FA Cup final.