Derby County v Wrexham

Last updated : 06 January 2007 By Dylan Gallacher

Pride Park
Saturday 6 January
Third Round
Kick-off: 1500 GMT
Referee: Richard Beeby (Northamptonshire)
Replay date (if required) : Tues, 16 Jan, 1945 GMT
Coverage on the BBC Sport website, BBC Radio Five Live & highlights on MOTD


Derby County will be without Paul Boertien (knee) for Saturday's FA Cup third round tie at home to Wrexham.

Boss Billy Davies has no other players out with injury or through suspension, but says he might make one or two changes to the side that beat Preston.

Wrexham will again be without strikers Juan Ugarte (hamstring), Neil Roberts (ankle), Kevin Smith (loan ended) and midfielder Mark Jones (knee).

But midfielder/defender Danny Williams is set to return after illness.

BIG-MATCH FACTS

DERBY COUNTY against Wrexham should be a shoehorn into the fourth round for the Championship club. They are 64 places superior on the League ladder, have won their last two matches and four of six and sit three points behind Birmingham in an automatic promotion spot for the Premiership. But this is the FA Cup, and the Rams will still have vivid memories of last season when they were knocked out by lower League opposition in Colchester.

Billy Davies' side are looking for a place in the fourth round for the third year running.

County, the 1946 winners, have never met Wrexham before in the FA Cup.

WREXHAM have lost their last two matches, and won just one of seven. Only six clubs lie beneath them in the League Two table, and there are two points separating the Welsh club from the relegation zone. But Wrexham have seen off bigger fish in this great competition - Middlesbrough in 1999, West Ham in 1997, Ipswich in 1995, and most notably perhaps Arsenal in 1992 with goals from Mickey Thomas and Steve Watkin. They were all top flight clubs at the time.

Their manager Denis Smith has also enjoyed some memorable moments. As a player he figured in two semi-finals with Stoke, and as a manager with York, Oxford and Sunderland he was not adverse to masterminding the odd giant killing.

But the Red Dragons' record in recent years in the competition is nothing to write home about. The three times quarter-finalists have exited at the first round stage in five of the last six seasons, and only won one tie in that time. They've not been in or beyond the third round since the year 2000. Wrexham were in the old Second Division when they last beat Derby. Ian Edwards scored the only goal in the League clash at the Baseball Ground on 20 September 1980.