Wednesday 27th SeptemberNewcastle United vs Manchester CitySt. James' ParkKick-off 8pm BSTTicket details

Last season's beaten finalists take on Pep Guardiola's treble winners under the lights at St. James' Park, with the Carabao Cup the only major competition that City failed to win last term.

This will be Kavanagh's first Newcastle match of the current campaign and only his fourth match of the season. He officiated a League Two game between MK Dons and Notts County earlier this month before overseeing Leeds' trip to Millwall in the Championship the following weekend, then most recently he was the man in charge of Liverpool's home victory over West Ham on Sunday.

The 38-year-old from Lancashire has shown three yellow cards across those three matches, having issued 70 bookings and just two red cards - both in the same match - in 23 games last term. They included the Magpies' 2-1 win at Brentford in April and 2-0 defeat to Arsenal the following month.

Promoted to the Select Group of Referees in 2017, Kavanagh was appointed to FIFA's international referees list in 2019.

He will be assisted by Ian Hussin and Matthew Wilkes, with Sam Allison the fourth official. There will be no VAR in operation on Wednesday night, as it isn't used in the Carabao Cup until the semi-final stage.

2022/23 stats:

Games (all competitions): 23Yellow cards issued: 70Red cards issued: 2

Assistants

Assistant referees: Ian Hussin and Matthew WilkesFourth official: Sam Allison