Derby County v West Ham United: FA Cup fourth round – live

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12 min: That was coming, to be honest. Derby look a little light in midfield, and had already been exposed on a couple of occasions before the goal.

GOAL! Derby 0-1 West Ham (Bowen 10)

Bowen doesn’t make the same mistake! This is a really clever goal, with Soucek playing a nifty one-two with Antonio, and the Czech midfielder nods down to Bowen, who fires into the corner from close range!

7 min: Another chance for West Ham! Derby again lose in midfield, and this time Bowen bears down on goal, but can only fire straight at Wildsmith. Derby sloppiness again goes unpunished.

5 min: Another email, this time from Bill Preston.

“I think this is going to be one of wild swings. West Ham are going to start strongly, and get a proper stomp on through the first half, but the Derby have decent strength, resolve, and a home tie. They’ll put together wily plays, coupled with thrilling heroics and steal this one.”

Remo Casale has also emailed to say that he fancies Derby. The home side have started well, hustling and bustling with a high press.

3 min: Bird is sloppy in midfield, losing out to Downes, and suddenly West Ham are on the counter-attack. Antonio carries the ball and has runners left and right but instead opts to shoot, firing disappointingly wide. A half-chance.

1 min: Derby so close to the opener. Barkhuizen latches onto a hopeful clearance, but beats the offside trap and sprints through on goal. The recovering pace of Johnson helps force him wide and the former Preston man chooses to cross rather than shoot. The ball pings around the area, before Soucek makes an important block on the edge of the D.

Peeeeeeep! And we’re underway in the east Midlands.

The players are out! Derby are decked in their famous white shirts and black shorts, while West Ham are in their claret and blue.

Our attention returns to Pride Park, where kick-off is just five minutes away.

We have a first email, from David Hopkins. It’s a good one.

“The very definition of a no lose game for the Rams tonight I think. It’s a year to the day since the fans held a march to the ground to highlight the very real threat of liquidation and one fewer founder members in the Football League. One dalliance with a delusional ‘crypto millionaire’ followed before David Clowes (who I trust will never be buying his own drink in Derby again) stepped in and saved the club. Derby will likely lose tonight but they’ll be playing again on Saturday and that’s good enough for me.”

The fifth-round draw is in!

A trip to Manchester United awaits for the winner of Derby and West Ham! Gulp …

The draw in full:

Southampton v Luton or Grimsby

Leicester City v Blackburn or Birmingham

Stoke City v Brighton

Wrexham or Sheffield United v Tottenham

Fulham or Sunderland v Leeds United

Bristol City v Manchester City

Manchester United v Derby or West Ham

Ipswich or Burnley v Sheffield Wednesday or Fleetwood Town

With the team news in, I’m temporarily hopping over to the liveblog for the FA Cup fifth-round draw. The balls are just about to be drawn. Join me here.

Team news

The hosts have plenty of Championship-standard players in their ranks but a real shame to lost McGoldrick to injury. He’s a class act, and kickstarted Derby’s comeback at Port Vale last week, scoring an 87th-minute equaliser, before Nathaniel Mendez-Laing grabbed the winner two minutes later.

West Ham are not quite at full-strength, with Rice and Pacqueta on the bench, but that’s a very tasty XI.

Preamble

Teetering one point above the Premier League drop zone and with a gruelling Europa Conference League campaign to see out this spring, West Ham might view an FA Cup run with a little trepidation.

But then, the Hammers haven’t won a major trophy in over 40 years. With nine Premier League teams already out of the FA Cup (including Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, Newcastle), and Declan Rice probably offski in the summer, there is a real opportunity here for a strong West Ham side (on paper at least) to go deep in the competition. And with the fifth-round draw taking place before kick-off, they will even know who their potential opponents could be in the sixth-round.

With plenty of time for his XI to recover before Saturday’s league trip to Newcastle, there will be plenty of West Ham fans hoping that David Moyes fields a strong starting line-up tonight.

Third-tier Derby County might not seem like the stiffest task for Moyes and co, but the League One side have not lost since October (!) and have won their last six games on the bounce. Pride Park, under the lights, will be rocking tonight.

Join me!

Kick-off: 7.45pm GMT.