Southampton have learned the team of Premier League officials who will oversee their first home game of the new season against Nottingham Forest on Saturday.
As is customary, the Premier League have today confirmed the officials for each of the weekend’s fixtures.
Russell Martin will be eyeing Southampton‘s game against Nottingham Forest as a perfect opportunity to get points on the board early in the season.
The clash will be refereed by Sam Barrott, with Tim Wood and Simon Long the appointed linesmen and John Busby the fourth official.
Barrott has been the man in the middle for Southampton just twice previously, overseeing the Saints’ 3-0 win over Preston in April as well as the 0-0 draw away at West Brom in the first leg of the play-off semi-final.
However, the notable appointment is in the VAR room, with Adrian Holmes appointed as the assistant VAR to Graham Scott after making perhaps the biggest Premier League VAR blunder since its introduction in 2019 last season.
Southampton VAR assistant v Nottingham Forest remembered for Liverpool controversy
Holmes was the linesman for Tottenham’s 2-1 win over Liverpool in October 2023, where he was involved in a blunder that will be remembered as one of the biggest mistakes of the VAR era.
Fortunately for Holmes, his contribution to the controversy was minimal, but he will still be keen to forget that day at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
With the scores level at 0-0, Luis Diaz was played through on goal before scoring only to see Holmes’ flag raised for offside.
Linesmen have difficult jobs and play was allowed to continue until the goal was scored to allow VAR to intervene if Diaz was in fact onside.
As it turned out, the Colombian was played onside by Cristian Romero, but what followed was a monumental error.
VAR officials on the day Darren England and Dan Cook identified that Diaz was onside but confusion around the on-field decision led to the pair confirming the check was complete.
This meant that the goal remained disallowed despite being onside and the VAR officials then failed to intervene once their mistake was realised.
Southampton already involved in controversy in first game v Newcastle
The Athletic’s Nick Miller summarised the incident by explaining: “When the news of exactly happened in the VAR bunker on Saturday filtered through, the heart sank.
“Not just because it was an inexplicable error to disallow a Luis Diaz goal that would have put Liverpool 1-0 at Tottenham, but because of what would inevitably come next.
“After all, in this specific instance, it wasn’t a debatable decision that was being discussed.
“As was made clear when the PGMOL released audio of what happened, the VAR had momentarily forgotten what decision he was checking and a pretty serious error had been made.”
The officiating team from that day were all demoted the the second tier for the following weekend having been stripped of their respective Premier League duties for the rest of the weekend of the incident immediately.
Southampton have already been involved in refereeing controversy since their return to the Premier League, with Newcastle’s Fabian Schar sent off for putting his head to Ben Brereton Diaz’ in the Saints’ 1-0 defeat at St James’ Park.
Whilst Brereton Diaz did make the most of the contact, Schar should have known better than to give the referee a decision to make as he was the aggressor in the incident.
Everyone involved on Saturday will be hoping for a controversy-free afternoon where the football is the main talking point.