Carabao Cup final referee DOESN'T have Old Trafford in his Facebook profile picture

Newcastle United fans accused the referee who will take charge of their Carabao Cup final against Manchester United of supporting Erik ten Hag's side, but it isn't actually true.

Eddie Howe's team will have the chance to win the club's first piece of major silverware since winning the FA Cup in 1955, when they head to Wembley at the end of the month.

They will face their rivals for the Champions League places, who were also their most recent opponents in a major final, back in 1999.

The visit to new Wembley will be their first when not playing against Tottenham Hotspur in a Premier League game, to further show how far Howe has taken them in a short time.

It should be a joyous build up to the game on February 26th but already their fans were getting a little worried, after it was announced that David Coote would be the referee.

Fans started circulating a picture on social media that claimed to prove Coote supports the other United, with the official's apparent Facebook profile picture said to be him at Old Trafford.

However, as per ESPN journalist Dale Johnson, it's not actually the case, and the image being used is actually a fake one.

Instead Coote's image is actually of the new Wembley, which also has red seats, so perhaps Newcastle fans were just getting confused because they're rarely seen the national stadium.

The fake image that worried Newcastle fans. Image: Twitter

It's not the only issue that fans of the Magpies have had over the appointment for their date in north London however, with Coote's 'support' of Ten Hag's side claimed in another way.

Despite the fact he's from Nottingham, and has no connections to Old Trafford, some have seen the fact he used to work for the Manchester CFA, working on facility development in the area, as 'proof' of his bias.

Furthermore he was involved when West Brom controversially had a penalty overturned against the team, then managed by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, nearly two and a half years ago.

Last year the 40-year-old also failed to give Newcastle a penalty during a game against Chelsea, the evidence really is stacking up here isn't it...

Finally, Coote was also the referee who failed to send off Fabinho earlier this year, when Liverpool were dumped out of the FA Cup by Brighton.

All in all there doesn't seem too much evidence that Coote is going to be biased come February 26th, and based off last weekend it wouldn't be any better with any specific ref in charge.