Everton v Peterborough, Fulham v Watford, and more: FA Cup third round – live | FA Cup

And they’re level! It’s a cracker, too. Rocco Vata picks up the ball in the Fulham half, drives central from the left and lets fly from afar, 30 yards out, into the top right. Game on!

The Premier League side are up and away at home, with Rodrigo Muniz nailing a first-time hit inside the area after a low ball in from the right by Adama Traoré. It’s a lovely finish, beating the keeper diving down to his left.

23 min: Everton 0-0 Peterborough This time Orel Mangala hits the ball perfectly, nailing a delicious volley from inside the D, but rattling the crossbar.

Matt Burtz offers a rather different view regarding Dyche.

I’m an Everton fan. I’ve watched almost every game this season. Anyone defending Sean Dyche at this point is delusional. This team has scored 15 goals in 19 league games. They have fewer goals than Southampton, a team with six points. They are the only team who lost to Southampton. Four of Everton’s goals came against Wolves, who have conceded the most goals in the league. That means Everton scored 11 goals in the other 18 games. This team is not without attacking talent and to say that he is the only one who can keep them up is ludicrous. You cannot 0-0 your way to safety; at some point goals have to be scored to win games. Staying with a manager who has proven he has no attacking ideas at all is a sure way to go down. At least now they have a fighting chance.

16 min: Everton 0-0 Peterborough Goodison isn’t exactly bouncing here as Mykolenko punts a long ball forward, trying to find Beto. Patterson wins a free-kick out on the right … the ball is dinked in, headed away, with Mangala set up to have shot from just outside the D. He delivers a complete miscue, a sliced miskick more familiar in playground football.

There is plenty of love for Sean Dyche in my email inbox. Here’s Tim Smith on the sixth manager to be sacked in the Premier League this season:

I think we all wish Sean Dyche the best. Done a good job under the circumstances. Plenty of struggling clubs will have his agent on speed dial. As for Everton, borderline unwatchable from a neutral perspective, and careful what you wish for. A very real chance of going down if they get their next move wrong. Dyche would have kept them up I think. Nice shiny new stadium for Championship clubs to break in?

7 min: Everton 0-0 Peterborough For obvious reasons, we haven’t really chatted about Peterborough all that much so far. They’re still led by Darren Ferguson, who has managed the club on-and-off since January 2007! Maybe he’ll try and outdo his old man and stick around for another 20.

1 min: Everton 0-0 Peterborough Leighton Baines and Seamus Coleman, who were a great full-back pairing back in the day, soak in the applause as they take charge. Everton are playing with a three-man central defence.

As Everton get ready to kick things off, Mary Waltz weighs in on the decision to axe Sean Dyche.

Greetings Taha, from the non burning half of Free State California. On the Dyche sacking. It may satisfy the howling of the internet wolves. Who knows. Maybe the traditional “new manager” bounce will occur. The new owners probably hated Dyche”s defensive style. But everyone, take a look at the December fixtures and the points Dyche drew from that hellish fixture list. And simply stated, Everton does not have the talent to play expansive football. Put me on the this is a mistake list.

Goodison roars as the players leave the tunnel. One of the more bizarre days in the long history of Everton FC.

Joe Pearson writes in: “Watching the beginning of Blades v Bluebirds on ESPN. Pretty sparse crowd there at Bramall Lane. Is it too cold for the locals to come out? As someone who has attended an NFL game in Green Bay that kicked off at -20 C, I have a word for the no-shows, which I will not use. A runner friend of mine used to say, there is no such thing as bad weather, just bad preparation.”

It is pretty sparse over at Bramall Lane.

23rd in the Championship take the lead against third! It’s a defensive error that prompts it, with Sheffield United’s Rhys Norrington-Davies dawdling on the ball in his own half. Cardiff’s Cian Ashford hassles him off it but still has plenty to do, driving into the area before calmly slotting in at the near post while holding off Norrington-Davies. Great composure from the 20-year-old.

Fulham: Benda, Castagne, Andersen, Cuenca, Sessegnon, Andreas Pereira, Lukic, Smith Rowe, Traoré, Rodrigo Muniz, Iwobi

Subs: Leno, Bassey, Diop, Reed, Cairney, King, Godo, Wilson, Jiménez

Watford: Bond, Andrews, Porteous, Ogbonna, Tikvic, Larouci, Ince, Kayembe, Dwomoh, Vata, Doumbia

Subs: Sierralta, Chakvetadze, Louza, Sissoko, Bayo, Morris, Baah, Nabizada, Roberts

Young (father) and Young (son) both begin on the bench. Everton make six changes to the team that started in the 1-0 league defeat by Bournemouth.

stephendcarr77 (I assume that isn’t on the birth certificate) writes in: “You’d be forgiven for thinking Dyche wrote that club statement himself. No-nonsense to say the least.”

The post-Dyche era begins.

Everton: João Virgínia, O’Brien, Keane, Branthwaite, Patterson, Mangala, Gueye, Mykolenko, Armstrong, Beto, Ndiaye

Subs: Begovic, Harrison, Doucouré, Young, Lindstrøm, Butterfield, Broja, Leban

Peterborough: Bilokapic, Nevett, Fernandez, Katongo, O’Brien-Brady, Kyprianou, Collins, Hayes, Conn-Clarke, Jones, Dornelly

Subs: Blackmore, Mothersille, De Havilland, Odoh, Lindgren, Sparkes, Wallin, Young, Ihionvien

Not a particularly hopeful email in from Edan Tal: “Dyche getting sacked is really reminding me of the Venkys coming into Blackburn and quickly sacking Sam Allardyce for Steve Kean. Relegation quickly followed.”

Speaking of the Young v Young battle, Luke McLaughlin has more on footballing father and sons.

This is a really lovely email, sent in by Nicholas Byrne.

Toffee here. Just want to put on record my thanks to Sean Dyche and his team. When he was appointed, I wrote that we’d finally employed a grown up, and I say that as someone who really wanted Lampard to succeed, and really really wanted Rafa to succeed. I’m firmly in the mind that nobody but Dyche could have got us through our points deductions, which were definitely the club’s fault but most definitely not his, and he has handled himself with dignity throughout his tenure.

It won’t be any consolation to him tonight, but this Everton fan will always be grateful to him. As for who is next, the new owners have already taken one major decision, we need to trust them to get the next one right, too. Onwards and sideways, Blues.

Sheffield United: Davies, Gilchrist, Baptiste, Norrington-Davies, Burrows, Blacker, Brooks, Brewster, Marsh, McCallum, Oné

Subs: Faxon, Hamer, O’Hare, Ahmedhodzic, Robinson, Boyes, Hampson, Colechin, Aston

Cardiff: Horvath, Kpakio, Fish, Daland, Bagan, Ng, Ralls, Colwill, Tanner, Ashford, Etete

Subs: Turner, Davies, Giles, Siopis, Rinomhota, Robertson, Willock, Jefferies, Pearce

This is a tale of two Championship clubs experiencing very different seasons. United are third while Cardiff are tied up in a relegation scrap, only Plymouth below them.

“Don’t you think that club statement is rather cold?” writes Phil Grey. “No gratitude expressed for keeping Everton up for two more seasons through extraordinarily difficult circumstances. No warm wishes for the future.”

I thought that, too, having kept them up despite a points deduction. Dyche will bounce back, in his standard no-nonsense style.

Some news that’s come in: Amad Diallo has signed a new five-and-a-half year contract at Manchester United. He’s been one of the few pluses from a pretty torrid season.

Quite the drama … and the real stuff hasn’t even kicked off yet. Sean Dyche was sacked as Everton manager earlier today, just hours before their FA Cup third-round tie against Peterborough, the 53-year-old denied his own Robins-Fergie moment. Leighton Baines, the former left-back and now Everton’s under-18s coach, takes charge tonight alongside Seamus Coleman, which is giving off real 2013/14 vibes.

The more wholesome story of the evening is the possibility of Ashley Young lining up against his son Tyler, who plays as a midfielder for Posh. This interview is very sweet.

That tie kicks off at 7.45pm GMT, alongside Watford’s trip to Fulham, which will see Marco Silva come up against his old side. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed watching the Cottagers this season with all their flair going forward, and reckon they’ve got a decent cup run in them. Before that, Sheffield United host Cardiff City at 7pm, so let’s keep an eye on that, too.

Here’s to the magic of the cup, and the joy it still provides even as it comes up against questions of relevance. For all of Manchester United’s misery last year, it’d be hard to find a supporter who wasn’t ecstatic when they triumphed over City in May.

Let’s get going: feel free to drop in your thoughts, queries, worries, predictions, whatever you fancy. Cheers!