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