The FA Cup 3rd Round, one of the highlights of the Football Season for many of us, the round that sees teams from the Premier League and Championship join the competition, often with several “Non-League” teams still involved, the dreams and hope of a New Year replicated into Footballing dreams both big and small!
In it’s 143rd season, the oldest competition in Football initially had 732 teams enter with qualifying rounds starting back in the summer of 2023, with 32 teams from these fixtures reaching the first round, where the EFL Teams first join the Competition.
A recap of the previous rounds…
1st Round
1st Round Replays
2nd Round
2nd Round Replays
The 3rd Round of The FA Cup took place over 5 days of the first weekend of 2024, between Thursday 4th January and Monday 8th January, the fixture between Crystal Palace and Everton the first to be played on Thursday of this weekend!
3rd Round Kit Log
64 Teams kicked off the 3rd Round in 32 Fixtures.
3rd Round Replays
There were 14 different Kit Manufacturers seen in this round of the FA Cup, with Macron having the most teams with 11 and Umbro with 10, the only two with double figures… four Kit Makers, Kappa, Kelme, New Balance (all Championship Clubs) and VX3 (Newport County) with just one club.
Kit Highlights
Crystal Palace kicked off the 3rd Round of the FA Cup on Thursday by wearing a special charity / 4th shirt, containing a sash something that The Eagles are well known for doning on their kits over the years. This shirt was paired with Home shorts and socks and with Everton in their 3rd Kit, it made for one of my favourite Kit Match Ups of the season so far.
For the 3rd Season in a row Arsenal used an all white kit, labelled as “No More Red”, highlighting teenage knife attacks in London. The shirts will not be for release and will sold for charities supporting the local communities. This season is different as the previous incarnations were used away from The Emirates Stadium, at Nottingham Forest in 2022 and Oxford United in 2023, so this is a rare ccurrence of Arsenal not in red at Home, Liverpool joind the No More Red theme by wearing their 3rd Kit for a unique look for one of the historic fixtures in English Football!
Maidstone United the lowest team left in the competition, continued to the 4th Round with their victory against League One Stevenage, The National League South (6th Tier) Kent Team have a kit which is based in design on the final Maidstone United kit from 1992 before the club folded and withdraw from The Football League.
An interesting Kit Match up with the Tyne / Wear Derby, in recent years when the clubs have played each other change kits have been worn to avoid a clash, this was not the case in this FA Cup game, with Newcastle United wearing alternative white shorts and socks with their Home Shirt to give a more traditional look to this fixture, something that raised mixed views across Social Media with both those glad to see this and those that called it out as a kit clash!
Blackpool are the only team that have worn three different kit looks in the opening three rounds of the Competition, having worn all Tangerine Home Kit in their opening round against Bromley, then their default home with against Forest Green Rovers and their Away Kit against Nottingham Forest.
Manchester City had one difference in their kit from any of the other competing clubs… as they continue to not use the offical FA Cup sleeve patches, due to the current sponsors of the competition, they do not use the patches as it is direct competition to their own principle sponsor. It is likely, as in previous seasons that will be fined for this action but that does not stop them! It also means the holders patch (which is silver not red) will not be seen this season.
Being a Cup competition meant that lots of clubs, introduced their own “Cup” Namesets instead of the standard league names and numbers that normally used, some stand out ones that we wanted to call out are the following…
Any of your FA Cup hightlights that I have missed or stand out, let me know your thoughts in the comments below or at @Kit_Geek
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Football Kit Geek - @Kit_Geek 