It’s time to hand out our FA Cup fourth round prizes after the weekend’s action, with Louis Reed, referee trouble and Pedro Neto.
Moment of the week
Talking about referee decisions in our Moment of the Week is a serious sin, but we cannot overlook the chaos of it Aston Villa vs Newcastle United. With VAR not in use in round four, we witnessed first-hand the impact the technology has had on officials. We’ve all moaned, groaned and complained about VAR, but the damage could be even greater than we realised.
Without this, officials seem terrified of making mistakes. First, Aston Villa’s opener was judged onside, despite replays clearly proving otherwise. Tammy Abraham wouldn’t have minded, but it makes you wonder how much civil servants have deteriorated in this technology-dependent age.
In the second half there was this. It might be one of the worst decisions we’ve seen in a long time.
Newcastle were denied a penalty as Lucas Digne appeared to commit a handball foul in the penalty area ❌
📺 @tntsports & @discoveryplusUK pic.twitter.com/z9FLpbxnUE
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) February 14, 2026
Fortunately, justice was served when Newcastle scored from the set-piece, but how did the referee do that? And Did his assistant misunderstand this so much?
VAR right? Newcastle win over Villa marred by refereeing errors
Player of the week
Chelsea recorded a victory at Hull City on Friday evening Pedro Neto the star of the show. A first-ever hat-trick of his career helped Liam Rosenior leave his old club, a treble taken with aplomb.
Neto set up the opening goal from the edge of the penalty area, before scoring straight from a corner when his throw eluded everyone.
40’—⚽
51’—⚽
71’—⚽First hat-trick of his career for Pedro Neto 🎩 pic.twitter.com/AKIpxNLtwZ
— B/R Football (@brfootball) February 13, 2026
He sealed the deal – and the match ball – with an emphatic finish to make it ten goals for the campaign in all competitions. This is already Neto’s best ever scoring season.
Goal of the week
Louis Reed has come to life in the FA Cup this season. That’s three goals for the Mansfield midfielder in this season’s cup campaign, as he also quickly builds up his own Goal of the Season catalogue.
This fantastic free-kick earned Mansfield a win at Burnley for the first time in 51 years and a place in round five.
Louis Reed with a beautiful free kick 🤯
What a way to seal a historic victory @mansfieldtownfc 😱#EmiratesFACup pic.twitter.com/WksF38nuwp
— Emirates FA Cup (@EmiratesFACup) February 14, 2026
Statistic of the week
Cup progress for Chelseawho this season want to debunk Alan Hansen’s famous mantra ‘You can’t win anything with children’.
It seems like the kids are actually fine.
105 – For the 105th consecutive match in all competitions, Chelsea have named a starting XI without one player aged 30 or over; the second longest run by a Premier League team is 47 by Aston Villa between August 1997 and May 1998. Unique. pic.twitter.com/TcuXfWYzYj
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) February 13, 2026
A week to forget…
The gardeners of Grimsby Town. The Blundell Park pitch is in need of some serious TLC after this weekend’s match with Wolves as grass is certainly in short supply.
We have seen pub places in better condition than this.
Good luck guys, it’s going to be a busy week.
The pitch conditions during Wolves’ FA Cup trip to Grimsby 😅 pic.twitter.com/rZLPi5AKNO
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) February 15, 2026
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