Brighton v Palace FA Cup game set for Monday night
Brighton and Hove Albion’s FA Cup Third Round tie with Crystal Palace at the Amex looks set to take place on the evening of Monday 8th January.
The Daily Telegraph are reporting that the game will be shown live on BT Sport and will be the first competitive game in England to stage a trial of video assistant referees.
The technology has already been used in England friendly internationals, where it resulted in France’s Raphael Varane being sent off in the Three Lions 3-2 friendly defeat at Stade de France in May. Harry Kane scored the resulting penalty for England.
It will be the first domestic game in the country to use the technology, making it an historic occasion worthy of being beamed into the homes of the nation. Let’s just hope the game is of better quality than our last league meeting, otherwise the VAR might be in for a very redundant night.
The Monday evening kick off will come as a surprise to many, given the trouble that took place on November 28th. Palace fans arrived in the city early on the Tuesday, defaced a mural of Bruno in the city centre and then ticketless fans apparently carrying knifes and knuckle dusters broke into the stadium and let off fireworks and bangers.
All of that palaver led many to believe that the game would be a Sunday lunchtime kick off on police advice. Another evening encounter, especially with an enlarged Palace contingent owing to FA rules stipulating that away fans can take up to 15% of the capacity, could be seen as a risk of the same sort of scenes occurring.
The spotlight will be firmly on the Albion and Sussex Police for this one, even without the game being shown live. On a personal note, it being played on a Monday is absolutely excellent as there is racing at Fontwell in the afternoon before hand which offers an excellent sporting double.
No ticket details have been released yet, but keep your eyes peeled on both our blog and social media feeds as we can’t wait to completely lose the plot at the thought of paying £45 to watch Jayson Molumby and Dessie Hutchinson against Palace’s stiffs.
