A WELLINGTON-BORN footballer played a starring role as League Two side Crawley Town shocked Premier League outfit Leeds United in the FA Cup third round on Sunday.
Tom Nichols - a former Court Fields School pupil - already has FA Cup pedigree, having scored for Exeter City against Liverpool in 2016 and for Peterborough United against Chelsea in 2017.
Now at Crawley, Nichols put in an impressive shift up front for the home side as they overwhelmed Marcelo Bielsa's Leeds 3-0.
He also provided an assist in front of the Match of the Day cameras, as he played a through ball for Ashley Nadesan to run on to, and his strike partner's effort was fumbled in by goalkeeper Kiko Casilla.
Several other players with Somerset connections were also involved on third round weekend.
Goalkeeper Matt Urwin, who played for Taunton Town on loan from Blackburn Rovers in 2012, helped Chorley defeat Derby County and reach the fourth round.
The National League North side won 2-0 against a Championship side who were missing their entire first team squad, boss Wayne Rooney and most of their under-23 side due to a Covid-19 outbreak.
Urwin made a good early save to deny Cameron Cresswell, but after that the youthful visitors struggled to create many chances.
Another former Taunton loanee, winger Joel Randall (who played for the Peacocks in 2018), was unable to prevent Exeter City going down to a 2-0 defeat at home to managerless Sheffield Wednesday.
League Two outfit Exeter also fielded Archie Collins - who hails from Edington, near Bridgwater - in their midfield as Wednesday secured their third straight win since the sacking of Tony Pulis.
Jordan Storey, a centre-back who hails from South Petherton, started Preston North End's match away fellow Championship side Wycombe Wanderers.
Wycombe raced into a 3-0 lead inside 25 minutes and Preston could not recover, losing 4-1 in the end.
Tonight sees the draw being made for both the fourth and fifth rounds of the competition, with 15 Premier League sides among the 32 teams remaining in the competition.
The fourth and fifth rounds are scheduled to take place over the weekend of January 23 and Wednesday, February 10, respectively.
Fourth round draw numbers
1 Plymouth Argyle
2 Southampton or Shrewsbury Town
3 Chorley
4 Tottenham Hotspur
5 Wolverhampton Wanderers
6 Stockport County or West Ham United
7 AFC Bournemouth
8 Manchester United
9 Swansea City
10 Everton
11 Nottingham Forest
12 Arsenal
13 Barnsley
14 Sheffield United
15 Millwall
16 Doncaster Rovers
17 Leicester City
18 Wycombe Wanderers
19 Crawley Town
20 Burnley
21 Bristol City
22 Fulham
23 Liverpool
24 Brentford
25 Manchester City
26 Luton Town
27 Chelsea
28 Sheffield Wednesday
29 Norwich City
30 Blackpool
31 Brighton & Hove Albion
32 Cheltenham Town
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