James Rowe’s Chesterfield have been forced to forfeit the FA Trophy, leaving his former club Aldershot Town to receive a bye into the quarter-finals
Aldershot Town have received a bye to the FA Trophy quarter-final after scheduled fifth-round opponents Chesterfield returned a positive PCR antigen Covid test.
The decision was taken following the postponement of Saturday’s tie, just an hour before kick-off, forcing the Spireites to turn around and head home.
The positive test means the Chesterfield first-team players and management must now isolate for ten days with their next three league fixtures – starting with a proposed visit back to Aldershot on Tuesday night – postponed.
Under FA rules, a rescheduled FA Trophy tie has to be played within five days of the original fixture and the possibility of playing an Under-19 team for the away side was considered before the decision was made to forfeit the tie.
Aldershot Town will now get a bye to the quarter-final where they will host National League North side Hereford on Saturday February 27.
