Magpies manager Jamie Vermiglio thrilled by his team's progression through to the fourth round of FA Cup

The Magpies defeated Derby County 2-0 at Victory Park thanks to a goal in each half from Connor Hall and Mike Calveley.

Despite the Rams being the Championship outfit, Vermiglio's men began their first ever venture to the third round of the competition bizarrely as the favourites to progress.

Rams caretaker boss Wayne Rooney and his entire first-team squad were unable to travel to Lancashire after a Covid-19 outbreak at Pride Park.

While they were isolating at home, County fielded a team containing members of their academy squad.

They battled valiantly, but were no match for the more experienced Magpies, who made their physicality count.

Vermiglio admitted it was a golden opportunity for his men to progress further in the competition and he praised them for standing up to the challenge and the expectations,

"I was sitting looking looking at my laptop on Monday night and watching the prime minister Boris Johnson's speech about lockdowns and schools, etc," said Vermiglio, who is a headteacher during the week.

"Then I started to get some news coming through that there might be a Covid situation at Derby.

"It was an unfortunate situation for the football club and I send my best wishes, but at the same time it brought a little bit of an advantage to us.

"I played it down during the week, saying that we were still the underdogs.,

"But with the greatest respect to them I think you saw after the first five or 10 minutes that we looked the stronger outfit.

"The way that the lads executed our tactics was first class.

"Obviously we needed to be a little bit more physical and direct - we are a good football team and I think we have seen that in previous rounds. We like to keep the ball.

"But it wasn't really a day for that.

"I think the difficulty for our boys was subconsciously they knew they weren't playing Derby's first team.

"Obviously you raise your game when you know you're coming up against players of those standards.

"But we were playing against 18 and 19-year-old boys so how do keep your intensity?

"I questioned them on that before the game and they answered that, their drive was to get through to the next round."

However, Vermiglio praised the way Derby's youngsters acquitted themselves and also thanked Rooney who rung him the morning before the game to wish him the best.

"I would just like to credit Wayne Rooney," he said. "I don't know him personally but he phoned up a couple of hours before the game.

"He passed on his well wishes and apologised that he couldn't be here.

"I think that shows the kind of man that he is."