Chorley v Derby County: FA Cup third round – live!

18 min: Another good set-piece routine from Chorley. The ball’s floated to the far post, headed across the face of goal and then blasted high and wide by Ollie Shenton, who had ghosted into the box from deep.

17 min: Chorley win another corner, Lewis Baines’s cross from the left going out for a corner off Max Bardell.

14 min: Chorley freee-kick, about 45 yards from goal, a little to the left. Ollie Shenton lofts the ball towards the edge of the six yard box and this time Matt Yates makes no mistake. Taking off like Superman, the young goalkeeper punches the dropping ball clear.

12 min: While there will be no disgrace in defeat for the youngsters of Derby today, should they lose, that was a very poor goal to concede.

10 min: Chorley corner. A game of penalty box head-tennis ensues and comes to an end when Connor Hall nods the ball over the line from about two yards out, helping along an initial header from Scott Leather.

Derby goalkeeper Matt Yates came for the ball but got lost in a thicket of bodies and wasn’t strong or authoratitive enough to punch it clear.

9 min: Play resumes after a brief pause during which Chorley goalkeeper Matt Urwin received treatment, presumably for a blow he received while diving at the feet of Cameron Cresswell as he zeroed in on goal.

In the absence of VAR, Friend consults with his linesman and decides it isn’t a spot-kick after all. I’ve seen it three times, twice in slow motion, and still have no idea whether Urwin fouled Cresswell or not.

Referee Kevin Friend penalises Chorley goalkeeper for bringing down Cameron Cresswell as he ran on to through ball.

4 min: Lewis Baines takes two throw-ins in quick succession down the left touchline, but the ball ends up back in the hands of his goalkeeper Matt Urwin. He kicks it long and Ollie Shenton tries a shot, which is blocked by Hugo Jinkinson.

2 min: Chorley win a throw in deep in Derby territory and chuck the ball long. Their players line up in black and white striped shirts, black shorts and black socks. The players of Derby weardark green shirts and shorts, and light green socks.

1 min: Play gets under way, with Chorley goalkeeper Matt Urwin getting an early fright as he goes to clear a backpass only to have his kick blocked. The ball loops back into his arms.

Not long now: The pitch at Victory Park is bathed in sunshine, with the snow that covered it during the week swept and shovelled to the base of the advertising hoardings around the sidelines.

Despite the vagaries of the freezing weather and a global pandemic, this games goes ahead. It’s behind closed doors, but there are a few lucky supporters who have vantage points at the top windows of neighbouring houses.

Jamie Vermiglio speaks: The Chorley manager is the head teacher of a primary school in “real life” and tells BT Sport that he’s had to push today’s match to the back of his mind in recent days, as he tries to deal with the fall-out from the latest national lockdown and all the added stress that brings him, his staff, their students and their students’ parents.

He says he is uncomfortable with his side being lumbered with the tag of favourites and adds that he took a call from Derby manager Wayne Rooney earlier this morning, wishing him all the best of luck for today.

That Derby team: With an average age of 19 and without a minute’s worth of senior first team experience between team, Derby County’s players will be lining up in shirts numbered 1 to 11, because none of the players have actual senior squad numbers. Contrary to earlier reports, the team has been picked by Pat Lyons, the club’s senior development coach.

He tells BT Sport that the club lost another four players to Covid yesterday, two of whom would have been starting today. “These players would never normally be put together under normal circumstances,” he says. “?But hey, this is the FA Cupand the dream we have today is to make this crazy week go our way. We want a performanc e the players can be proud of, the club can be proud of and the fans can be proud of … and obviously the lads’ families.”

Chorley: Urwin, Birch, Halls, Leather, Baines, Tomlinson, Shenton, Newby, Calveley, Hall, Cardwell.

Subs: Miller, Henley, Roberts, Malakai, Putnam, Smith, Marah, Reilly.

Derby County: Yates, Bardwell, Jinkinson, Solomon, Williams, Bateman, Aghatise, Liam Thompson, Cresswell, Hutchinson, Duncan.

Subs: Ibrahim, Christie, Rutt, Ebosele, Rogers, Seb Thompson, Cybulski, Sykes-Kenworthy.

How Chorley got here: The National League North side reached the third round for the very first time with a 2-1 win over League One side Peterborough United in November, their fourth consecutive win in this season’s competition.

Before that, they had beaten Gateshead, York City and Wigan Athletic and this televised tie against Derby County is their reweard for that victory.

Hats off to Chorley’s groundsman

A broken generator saw to it that Chorley’s groundsman Ben Kay had an uncomfortable night camping out on the Victory Park pitch, as he explained on BBC Radio 5 Live this morning …

Referee Kevin Friend
Assistant referees Robert Merchant and Robert Atkin
Fourth official Ross Joyce

Non-league hosts entertaining a struggling Championship side has all the ingredients of a potential giant-killing, but as Chorley take on Derby County at Victory Park today, nobody is quite sure who the “giants” are.

An outbreak of Covid-19 in the Derby County camp means the club have been forced to send a team made up entirely of U-23s and academy players to fulfil the fixture, a state of affairs that means bookmakers have installed the Lancashire side from the National League North – the sixth tier of English football – as favourites to win.

In the absence of Wayne Rooney, Derby’s academy director, Darren Wassall, will take charge but will be without several more highly regarded members of the under-23 squad who have trained with the first team in recent days.

While not as high profile, this is a similar scenario to that faced by Aston Villa against Liverpool last night, a crucial difference being that the youngsters of Derby County are full time players, while their opponents from Chorley are part-timers with neither a Champions League nor Premier League winner’s medal between them.

Kick-off at Victory Park is at 12.15pm (GMT) but stay tuned in the meantime for what promises to be fascinating team news and build-up.