by Andrew Crawshaw
Here courtesy of thefa.com are all of the games and officials including those on VAR duty. Kickoffs are at 15:00 unless noted:-
Friday 4 January
19.45pm Tranmere Rovers FC v Tottenham Hotspur,
Referee Andre Marriner
Assistant Referees Edward Smart & Marc Perry
Fourth Official Paul Tierney. The result was 0-7.
Saturday 5 January
12.30pm Manchester United FC v Reading FC
Referee Stuart Attwell
Assistant Referees Darren Cann & Andrew Garratt
Fourth Official David Coote
VAR Jonathan Moss
AVAR Stephen Child
12.30pm Sheffield Wednesday FC v Luton Town
Referee Robert Jones
Assistant Referees Jonathan Hunt & Adam Matthews
Fourth Official Daniel Middleton
12:30 Shrewsbury Town FC v Stoke City FC
Referee David Webb
Assistant Referees Paul Hodskinson & John Flynn
Fourth Official Simon Mather
12:30 AFC Bournemouth v Brighton & Hove Albion FC
Referee Michael Oliver
Assistant Referees Adam Nunn & Ian Hussin
Fourth Official Craig Hicks
VAR Craig Pawson
AVAR Sian Massey-Ellis
12:30 West Ham United v Birmingham City FC
Referee Roger East
Assistant Referees Scott Ledger & Derek Eaton
Fourth Official Alan Young
VAR Lee Probert
AVAR Constantine Hatzidakis
12:30 West Bromwich Albion FC v Wigan Athletic FC
Referee Keith Stroud
Assistant Referees Steven Meredith & Mark Pottage
Fourth Official Josh Smith
12:30 Burnley FC v Barnsley FC
Referee Simon Hooper
Assistant Referees Simon Beck & Richard West
Fourth Official Graham Salisbury
VAR Lee Mason
AVAR Dan Cook
Bolton Wanderers FC v Walsall FC
Referee Darren England
Assistant Referees Neil Davies & Daniel Robathan
Fourth Official James Oldham
Gillingham FC v Cardiff City FC
Referee Tim Robinson
Assistant Referees James Mainwaring & Samuel (Sam) Lewis
Fourth Official Antony Coggins
Brentford FC v Oxford United
Referee Jeremy Simpson
Assistant Referees Nigel Lugg & Darren Blunden
Fourth Official Christopher O’Donnel
Everton FC v Lincoln City FC
Referee John Brooks
Assistant Referees Akil Howson & Lee Venamore
Fourth Official Michael Salisbury
Chelsea v Nottingham Forest FC Saturday
Referee Andrew Madley
Assistant Referees Timothy Wood & Daniel Leach
Fourth Official Darren Drysdale
Derby County FC v Southampton FC
Referee Oliver Langford
Assistant Referees Andrew Fox & Shaun Hudson
Fourth Official Neil Hair
Accrington Stanley FC v Ipswich Town FC
Referee Dean Whitestone
Assistant Referees Matthew Jones & Wayne Grunnill
Fourth Official Steven Copeland
Fleetwood Town FC v AFC Wimbledon
Referee Ross Joyce
Assistant Referees Grant Taylor & Darren Wilding
Fourth Official Benjamin Speedie
Middlesbrough v Peterborough United FC
Referee James Linington
Assistant Referees Matthew McGrath & Philip Dermott
Fourth Official Andrew Miller
Aston Villa FC v Swansea City FC
Referee Gavin Ward
Assistant Referees Mark Russell & Geoffrey Russell
Fourth Official Samuel Allison
17:30 Newcastle United FC v Blackburn Rovers FC
Referee Kevin Friend
Assistant Referees Matthew Wilkes & Adrian Holmes
Fourth Official Martin Coy
VAR Craig Pawson
AVAR Simon Bennett
17:30 Crystal Palace FC v Grimsby Town FC
Referee Martin Atkinson
Assistant Referees Harry Lennard & Lee Betts
Fourth Official John Busby
VAR Jonathan Moss
AVAR Gary Beswick
17:30 Bristol City FC v Huddersfield Town FC
Referee Peter Bankes
Assistant Referees Nick Greenhalgh & Matt Foley
Fourth Official Kevin Johnson
17:30 Blackpool FC v Arsenal 5.30pm
Referee Michael Dean
Assistant Referees Michael McDonough & Andrew Halliday
Fourth Official Paul Tierney
17:30 Norwich City FC v Portsmouth FC
Referee Darren Bond
Assistant Referees Mark Jones & Robert Merchant
Fourth Official Dean Skipper
Sunday 6 January
14:00, Millwall FC v Hull City
Referee Andy Woolmer
Assistant Referees Ian Cooper & Graham Kane
Fourth Official Robert Whitton
14:00 Preston North End FC v Doncaster Rovers FC
Referee Andy Davies
Assistant Referees Adam Crysell & Billy Smallwood
Fourth Official Barry Lamb
14:00 Fulham v Oldham Athletic FC
Referee Anthony Taylor
Assistant Referees Gary Beswick & Simon Bennett
Fourth Official Lee Swabey
VAR Lee Probert
AVAR Ian Hussin
14:00 Manchester City FC v Rotherham United FC
Referee David Coote
Assistant Referees Peter Kirkup & Simon Long
Fourth Official Paul Marsden
VAR Lee Mason
AVAR Derek Eaton
14:00 Woking FC v Watford FC
Referee Graham Scott
Assistant Referees Stephen Child & Nick Hopton
Fourth Official Roger East
14:00 Queens Park Rangers FC v Leeds United AFC
Referee Geoff Eltringham
Assistant Referees Dean Treleaven & Adrian Waters
Fourth Official David Rock
14:00 Sheffield United FC v Barnet FC
Referee Tony Harrington
Assistant Referees Mark Dwyer & Michael George
Fourth Official Leigh Doughty
16:30 Newport County AFC v Leicester City FC
Referee Christopher Kavanagh
Assistant Referees Sian Massey-Ellis & Dan Cook
Fourth Official Michael Oliver
Monday 7 January
19:45 Wolverhampton Wanderers FC v Liverpool FC
Referee Paul Tierney
Assistant Referees Constantine Hatzidakis & Stuart Burt
Fourth Official Andre Marriner
VAR Anthony Taylor
AVAR Harry Lennard
One match kicks off the 3rd round, tonight, Tranmere Rovers against Spurs without the benefit of VAR.
On Saturday
Seven matches kick off at 12:30, four (United, Bournemouth, West Ham and Burnley) with VAR.
Ten kick off at 15:00, none of which will have VAR.
Five kick off at 17:30 including Arsenal, Newcastle and Crystal Palace get VAR, we don’t
On Sunday
There are seven matches with a 14:00 kick off, Fulham and Man City get VAR
Newport v Leicester kick off at 17:30 without VAR
The Round finishes on Monday evening with Wolves v Liverpool this last match having the benefit of VAR.
The eagle-eyed of you will all have noticed that our allocated referee is none other than our old friend Mike Dean. Enough to send most of us looking for conspiracy theories, particularly as VAR is not going to be in use for this match. Whilst it is entirely possible that he will tilt the pitch, he will have to do it to an extraordinary degree to enable Blackpool to have any real chance of getting anything from the game.
Our players need to be careful of making any challenges that can be interpreted as worthy of a card and certainly anything in our penalty area will be picked on with glee. Equally it is extremely unlikely that we will bet a penalty ourselves if past history is any indication.
We need one of our rare quick starts and a couple of goals in the opening exchanges to take the result out of Mr Dean’s hands entirely.
COYG
What does ‘AVAR’ mean?
Tierney as assistant VAR, won’t get a penalty then even nailed on. Probably a yellow or two.
Ah, just seen we don’t have VAR not sure whether that is better or worse with those two.
On VAR duties for each match there are a PGMO referee and assistant referee. I’m not sure exactly what each of them is required to do. Presumably they will look at incidents from those perspectives, although how that helps getting the right decisions I don’t know. I’ll ask Walter if he can give a note of clarification.
They’ll just be like nodding dogs. Oh yes Oh yes Oh yes
A bit like Michael Corleone reviewing Vito Corleone’s decisions
No VAR at Blackpool, an upset on the cards then….
In Belgium where VAR is already in place in every match there are always two VAR referees on duty in a match. On Assistant VAR who will focus on the offside decisions and one VAR who will focus on the refeee decisions. They do this to make sure that when double decisions (eg doubtful offside and possible foul) are at stake so each can come to the conclusion quicker in their field of experience.
Mind you even with VAR the ref on the field has the final word. VAR and AVAR can only call the referee over and say he should have a second look. If the ref on the field ignores it, he can do this
So Dean… expect the softest of penalties to go against us in this match
My latest data on Mike Dean:
He has supervised 22 treatments as of Game Day 21, 15 against home teams and 7 against away teams (statistically, these two values are similar). In the course of those 22 treatments, the home team needed to substitute the player 4 times, and the away team 3 times (that is even closer to being similar). The length of time the home team was short-handed was 22 minutes, and the away team 15 minutes. My guess is those numbers are similar.
Compared to the previous time Mike Dean appeared, he had no change in ranking.