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Stand-in striker Danny Butterfield scored a hat-trick in seven minutes as cash-strapped Crystal Palace beat Premier League Wolverhampton Wanderers 3-1 in tonight’s FA Cup Fourth Round replay at Selhurst Park.

The former Grimsby Town defender scored after 61, 65 and 67 minutes but it is not the quickest hat-trick in the competition’s 129-year history.

Andy Locke of Nantwich Town netted three goals in the space of 2 minutes and 20 seconds against Droylsden in a First Round Qualifying tie on 9 September 1995.

As for the proper rounds, Billy Best of Southend United struck three times in three minutes in a 10-1 win against Brentwood Town in the Secound Round on 7 December 1968.

Billy scored five goals in the game and also hit a hat-trick in the First Round 9-0 drubbing of King’s Lynn.

Fifa has confirmed England will be one of eight seeded teams when the World Cup draw takes place this week.

They will thus avoid favourites Spain and Brazil, who are two of the other seeded sides, in the group stage.

Argentina, Germany, the Netherlands, holders Italy and hosts South Africa make up the remaining seeded nations.

The 32 qualifiers will be assembled into eight groups on Friday in Cape Town when the draw is made from 1745 GMT for next summer’s tournament.

England are ranked only ninth in the Fifa world rankings but the impressive qualification campaign by Fabio Capello’s squad has reaped rewards.

Portugal, currently ranked fifth, and France, who are seventh, had problems making the big tournament in South Africa and have thus missed out on the seedings, which reflect October’s positions in the official table rather than those from November - the month in which the play-offs took place.

The eight seeds will all be in pot one, with the remaining three pots drawn on regional boundaries.

Each seeded nation will face one team in pot two - a side from Asia, north or central America, or Oceania - one from pot three, which has five African and three South American sides, and one from the exclusively European pot four.

Hosts South Africa will be automatically positioned as A1, the other seeded teams will be drawn into the other groups B-H but will always be in position ‘1′ of their group.

Groups will be drawn from A to H and the positions in the group will be drawn for pots two to four.

No two teams from the same confederation will be drawn in the same group (except European teams, where a maximum of two will be in a group).

For example, South Africa cannot play the African teams from pot three and Argentina and Brazil cannot be drawn against the three remaining South American teams.

Pots for Friday’s draw: eight groups of four countries to be drawn, each group containing one country from each pot.

Pot 1 (seeds): South Africa, Brazil, Spain, Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Argentina, England

Pot 2 (Asia, Oceania and North/Central America): Japan, South Korea, North Korea, Australia, New Zealand, United States, Mexico, Honduras

Pot 3 (Africa and South America): Ivory Coast, Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria, Algeria, Paraguay, Chile, Uruguay

Pot 4 (Europe): France, Portugal, Slovenia, Switzerland, Greece, Serbia, Denmark, Slovakia

No female has ever managed a professional men’s side in Britain, but the League Managers’ Association said it would support Powell if she applied for the role at Grimsby, after press speculation that she has applied for the job.

LMA chief executive Richard Bevan said: “Why shouldn’t she (make the step into the men’s game)?

“Hope has done a fantastic job with England, but I’m not sure the FA would want to let her go.”

Powell has been in charge of the England Women’s team for 11 years and was the first woman to earn a Uefa Pro Licence - football’s highest coaching award.

In September this year she led the side to the final of the women’s European Championship where they lost to Germany.

Shay Given and Kevin Kilbane both gained their 100th cap in the scoreless draw between Republic of Ireland and Montenegro on the 14th October.

For Kilbane it was his 50th consecutive competitive game for his country; only England’s Billy Wright has achieved a longer unbroken run in competitive international football.

Given was awarded the captaincy in honour of the occasion.

Both players are now just two caps behind Steve Staunton who holds the record for appearances for Republic Ireland having played 102 times during his career.

Yossi Benayoun’s hat-trick against Burnley on the 8th of September was the 200th in the history of the English Premier League.

Benayoun’s treble was the second of the 2009-2010 season following England striker Jermain Defoe’s triple strike against Hull City on August 19th.

Of the 200 hat-tricks to date Alan Shearer leads the way with 11, followed by Robbie Fowler, now plying his trade in Australia, with nine and then former Arsenal striker Thierry Henry and Manchester United striker Michael Owen with eight each. Owen is the only current player with more than three hat-tricks.

Eric Cantona scored the first hat-trick in the Premier League on 25th August 1992 against Tottenham Hotspurs for Leeds.

Arsenal players have scored the most hat-tricks with 28 scored by the team.

Some record’s show 201 hat-tricks, with Nicolas Anelka attributed a hat-trick for Manchester City against Everton on the 31st August 2002, but one of the goals has been re-credited as an own-goal by Everton’s Tomasz Radzinski.

For the first time in a European club tournament, tonight’s Europa League matches will have two extra officials.

The referee will have four assistants, with two officials placed behind the goal lines at each end.

Although it is an experiment, the system of five officials could become the norm if it is successful.

The plan is for the extra officials to aid decisions such as whether the ball has crossed the goalline and penalty decisions.

From next season England’s Premier League clubs have agreed new rules on the number of “home-grown” players in their squads.

Each club will, at the end of every transfer window, have to name at least eight “home-grown” players in a squad of 25.

To qualify as home grown, a player will have had to be registered for at least three seasons at an English or Welsh club between the ages of 16 and 21.

According to a recent poll from the Professional Football Players’ Observatory, English clubs employ the highest proportion of expatriate players, with 59.2% coming from abroad.

Liverpool have the highest percentage in Europe of expatriate players within their squad, measuring 90%.

On Wednesday, 9th September, Thierry Henry became the first Frenchman to score 50 international goals when he scored the equaliser in his country’s World Cup qualifier against Serbia.

Henry scored his first international goal in a 3-0 win against South Africa at the 1998 World Cup.