Well, this is a first for the Dons, well at least I think it is, but on Saturday our FA Cup game away to Burnley will come under the scrutiny of the all-seeing eye, better known as VAR (Video Assistant Referee), but not only that there will be an Assistant Video Assistant Referee, the FA call it an Additional VAR, but I think it sounds much better the way we have titled it.
We are also honoured to have well known Premiership ref Jonathan Moss as the man in the middle, born in Sunderland 50 years ago and now residing in West Yorkshire.
This will be the first time we have bumped into Mr Moss since 2016 when we lost 5-1 at home to Chelsea.
Ref Moss has been in charge of our fixtures on 5 occasions and the game against Chelsea has been they only one we have lost winning the other four, but he courted controversy when sending off Stephen Gleeson incorrectly in our playoff semi final against Peterborough in 2011…. never forgive…never forget.
From what we can work out he has reffed on 13 occasions so far this season, and dished out 33 yellow cards, and resisted the temptation to show the red card daylight.
The man sitting in a darkened room in a secret location watching the VAR playbacks will be Anthony Taylor with Andrew Halliday holding his hand as that Assistant we talked about.
On the flags we have Marc Perry and Harry Lennard, with the 4th Official as Geoff Eltringham.
