Premier League make Newcastle United official decision after Liverpool complaint
The Premier League match officials have been confirmed for Newcastle United’s trip to Southampton on Saturday (3pm kick-off).
Sam Barrott will be referee for the match at St Mary’s as Newcastle look to bounce back from last weekend’s disappointing 4-1 defeat to AFC Bournemouth at St James’ Park. Meanwhile, bottom-of-the-table Southampton are looking for only their second win of the season in the Premier League.
The sides met on the opening day of the season back in August with Joelinton’s first-half strike seeing Newcastle claim a 1-0 win. The Magpies were reduced to 10 men early on as Fabian Schar was shown a straight red card for violent conduct against Ben Brereton-Diaz.
The Southampton forward was criticised for making the most of the minimal contact with Schar’s head but Newcastle’s appeal to have the card rescinded was ultimately unsuccessful. After 13 appearances without scoring, Brereton-Diaz has since left Southampton on loan this week to rejoin his former club Sheffield United.
Referee Barrott last officiated a Newcastle game back in December as The Magpies beat Brentford 3-1 in the Carabao Cup quarter-final. No major controversies were reported from the game, which had no VAR in place.
However, Barrott’s last visit to St Mary’s back in November was full of incidents as Southampton were beaten 3-2 by Liverpool in a game that saw seven bookings and a penalty awarded for either side.
There were also protests from Liverpool to see Southampton midfielder Adam Lallana sent off for a foul on Ryan Gravenvberch, but the former England man escaped with a yellow.
Chris Kavanagh will be video assistant referee for Saturday’s match, assisted by Ian Hussin. Lee Betts and Wade Smith will be assistant referees for the match with Simon Hooper as fourth official.
Newcastle head into the match sitting sixth in the Premier League table on 38 points while Southampton sit bottom with six points from their opening 22 matches. Despite previously having a very poor record at Southampton, Newcastle have won each of their last three visits to St Mary’s and are unbeaten in eight against The Saints, winning seven.