The FA Cup 3rd Round is one of the highlights of the English football season, with teams from Premier League and Championship entering the competition with those from League One, League Two and Non-League Teams.
Time for a quick recap….
1st Round – 1st November to 4th November 2024
2nd Round – 29th November to 1st December 2024
The 3rd Round this season was played over 6 days, between Thursday 9th January to Tuesday 14th January (the games on 14th January were 3 matches postponed from Saturday 11th January), there are 32 games in total in this round and all games were played to a final result, with replays now scrapped from this season!
Everton were one of the teams that kicked the FA Cup 3rd Round off on Thursday evening were they played Peterborough United. The wore alternative blue socks at Home (default socks are white), it turns out Peterborough United turned up using their Away Kit which used white socks as well, so Everton made the switch to blue socks to avoid the clash.
Aston Villa are celebrating their 150th Anniversary this season and used their FA Cup game on Friday 10th January to wear their celebration kit. The Black shirt with red lion pays tribute to the first kit worn by the club in 1875, the kit was paired with white shorts and black socks, also the shirt did not contain any sponsors, the Adidas logo was “Blacked” out and the only player numbers were worn, not names. A truly wonderful look, that I do hope we get to see again this year!
They also used a special goalkeeper kit too, so it was nice to see the whole team get something different in this case.
Liverpool v Accrington Stanley (who are they – yes, you have to be a certain vintage to get that reference) was another game with a special kit, with Accrington Stanley wearing a special one off change kit to commemorate their appearance at Anfield. This was also the 3rd different kit used by Accrington in their 3 FA Cup games, having worn Away in the 1st Round (at Rushall Olympic) and Home Kit (home to Swindon Town).
Brighton & Hove Albion used alternative socks in their game against Norwich City, not necessarily anything to be looked into here, however they used alternative white shorts through-out their Carabao Cup campaign (3 Home games), so will this be another alternative look from the Premier League? Let’s see what happens in the 4th Round.
I wanted to call out our Friends at The Terrace, who’s wonderful Morecambe Kit got some get visibility when the team played at Chelsea…
Something very interesting with the Manchester City Kit and a wonderful spot by @KitConnorsseur over at X. Manchester City wore a non branded FA Cup Sleeve patch.
This has been an ongoing issue between the Club and FA regarding sponsorship, with FA Cup being sponsored by one of Manchester City’s sponsors biggest competitors and over recent seasons they have not worn any sleeve patch (which did carry a fine for the club) but it looks like an alternative has been found with a patch worn in Saturday’s game against Salford City.
Arsenal continued their use of a “No More Red” Kit in the 3rd Round of the FA Cup, this is the 4th season they have used this all white kit, which is being used to promote various local charities for youths, the shirts will be auctioned off and will not be produced for sale.
Details from this years campaign can be found here.
Dagenham & Redbridge who were one of the two Non-League sides in the competition and played League sides in all three rounds they played in, each of these games they were away and wore their away kit, also it was the only Admiral Kit in the competition (well at least from the 1st Round).
Mansfield Town were the 2nd team to wear three different kits in their three cup games. They wore their Away Kit in 1st Round (at Curzon Ashton) and their 3rd Kit in 2nd Round (at Stevenage).
Manufacturers – 64 Teams, 17 Manufacturers
- Macron – 11 Teams
- Adidas – 10 Teams
- Puma – 8 Teams
- Nike – 6 Teams
- Castore – 5 Teams
- Umbro – 5 Teams
- Errea – 4 Teams
- Hummel – 3 Teams
- Joma – 2 Teams
- New Balance – 2 Teams
- Oxen – 2 Teams
- Admiral – 1 Team
- Kappa – 1 Team
- Kelme – 1 Team
- O’Neills – 1 Team
- Sudu – 1 Team
- Terrace – 1 Team
Overview of 3rd Round
What were your Kit Highlights from FA Cup 3rd Round, let me know in the comments or over at my Socials… X – @kit_geek or Bluesky – Kit Geek
Football Kit Geek - @Kit_Geek 