FURIOUS Cherries star Harry Arter has blasted a leading national newspaper and leapt to the defence of teenage team-mate Baily Cargill.

Arter has accused The Independent of “bullying” after it ran an online article claiming Cargill had worn a wig during Cherries’ League Cup quarter-final against Liverpool last night.

The story was based around a fan's Vine clip, which has been viewed more than 2m times since last night after being picked up by the Football Vines twitter account.

 

Midfielder Arter today took to social networking site Twitter to lambast The Independent’s Simon Rice and posted two tweets.

They read: “Terrible article by @simonrice on @b_cargill. An apology is the minimum that should be given here, a 19-year-old boy now getting laughed at,” and “It's a form of bullying and totally not true... story should be taken down”.

 

Under the headline "Footballer sees his ‘wig’ fall off mid-match during Liverpool win over Bournemouth", the Independent article showed the Vine video footage of something falling from Cargill’s head during the game.

The story suggested it had appeared to be “some sort of hair-piece designed to give the impression of a pony tail”.

The Mirror compared the "blunder" to Diana Ross's notorious penalty at the 1994 World Cup and to Andy Townsend's Premier League Tactics Truck.

Both the Huffington Post and Western Daily Press also ran a story saying it was a wig.

However, Cargill had donned a protective bandage after sustaining a head injury, which had required two stitches, in training ahead of the clash.

The padded bandage was used to help prevent the wound from splitting because the position of the cut had been difficult to cover.

Cherries moved to clarify the reason behind Cargill’s headgear when they posted on their official Twitter page:  “Just to confirm, @b_cargill was wearing a bandage last night for a cut sustained in training, not a hairpiece!”

 

And here's Neil Perrett displaying the bandage on his head: