Mike Calveley makes Cup history for Chorley and stuns weakened Derby
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National League North side Chorley are in the fourth round of the FA Cup for the first time in their 138-year history, after defeating a Derby side reduced to fielding an entire team of youth players following a Covid-19 outbreak.
With interim manager Wayne Rooney and his entire first-team squad isolating, development coach Pat Lyons selected a Derby side without a single minute of senior game time. Such was the level of inexperience in the away side, the Derby players wore numbers 1-11 on their shirts, due to none of them actually having a senior squad number.
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They did the Championship club proud with their endeavour but ultimately failed to avoid elimination, after goals from Connor Hall and Mike Calveley deservedly ensured Chorley became the first sixth-tier side to reach this stage of the FA Cup since Havant & Waterlooville in 2008. The Lancashire club are now also only one win away from becoming just the 10th team at their level to reach the fifth round.
But no matter what happens next, Chorley will be in the hat for the last 16, as the draw for rounds four and five will take place at the same time. Their manager, Jamie Vermiglio, who works as a headteacher at a local school, had stressed his side were still underdogs despite the Covid outbreak which had depleted Derby’s ranks.
Yet within 10 minutes they were ahead, after Derby failed to clear their lines from a Willem Tomlinson corner and allowed Hall to head in at the near post. Four minutes earlier, Derby thought they had won a penalty when Matthew Urwin brought down Cameron Cresswell, but the referee, Kevin Friend, changed his decision after deciding Urwin had won the ball.
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That, in truth, was the closest Derby came to troubling Chorley all afternoon. The young Rams players were certainly not short on spirit but they lacked the physicality to match their more senior opponents, despite the hosts, who are 125th in the league pyramid, being a part-time outfit.
Chorley dominated the majority of the contest, and after several near-misses either side of half-time, their control was finally rewarded seven minutes from time, when Calveley prodded home from an Elliot Newby cross to ensure their place in the next round.