County march on as Palace sink Wolves

League Two’s Notts County continued to fly the flag for English football’s fourth tier by dumping Premier League side Wigan out of the competition on Tuesday with a 2-0 victory.

Wolves also tumbled out of the world’s oldest knockout competition with Mick McCarthy’s side going down to a 3-1 defeat by the Championship’s Crystal Palace, for whom Danny Butterfield scored a six-minute hat-trick.

Notts County were on the back foot for most of their match at Wigan.

But with 15 minutes left, Stephen Hunt headed home from a Ben Davies corner to give them the lead and, three minutes later, Wigan’s recently-signed Scottish defender Gary Caldwell deflected another Davies cross into his own net.

That sealed a 2-0 victory and County’s reward was a fifth round trip to another Premier League side, Fulham.

Palace’s hat-trick hero Butterfield was left in a state of shock after his second-half heroics against Wolves.

The defender turned striker had scored just one goal in six previous seasons at Palace and he admitted: “I still can’t believe it’s happened.

“I’m normally a one goal every four seasons man so three in one night is unbelievable.”

Karl Hendry pulled one back for Wolves in the final minute but Butterfield’s 62nd, 65th and 68th-minute strikes had made the game safe by then.

The win will mean a welcome cash boost for Palace, who went into administration last week and were forced to sell their highly-rated young striker, Victor Moses, to Wigan on the final day of the transfer window to appease creditors.

That prompted Butterfield to joke: “I think I was a day too late, I could have perhaps gone for four or five million yesterday!”

Palace entertain League Cup finalists Aston Villa in what should be a lucrative fifth round tie.