Lewes boss Steve Ibbitson hailed one of their best performances of the season after they joined Crawley and Eastbourne Borough in the last 32 of the FA Trophy.

Three first-half goals secured a second round tie at Blue Square premier Kidderminster on January 9 and it was no more than the Rooks deserved, especially for their first-half performance, at a freezing Dripping Pan last night.

Ibbitson beefed up his strike force last week by bringing Jean-Michel Sigere back to the club and signing former Albion striker Scott Ramsay on a dual registration with Hastings.

Neither were available last night but if Ibbitson was trying to galvanise his other front men into action it worked a treat as they scored three goals for the first time this season.

Ibbitson said: “We still need at least one big lad up front but I thought we took the goals well. For the first time we got players into the box to follow up things which we haven’t had all season.

“We played well in the first half but conditions deteriorated in the second half and it made it hard to keep playing but that probably suited us and they didn’t get behind us too often. It’s a great win for the club.”

Lewes’ neat passing football was more productive on an icy surface than the visitors’ route-one approach and it paid off after nine minutes when David Wheeler challenged goalkeeper Matt Lovett inside the box and when the ball ran loose Brinkhurst slammed it into an empty net.

Rivers nearly added a second but failed to keep a close-range half- volley down but Lewes were grateful to goalkeeper Rikki Banks to preserve their lead when he produced a superb double save to keep out Michael Lee Charles’ volley before turning Craig Dundas’ follow-up over the crossbar.

The importance of those saves became apparent when Lewes scored twice in two minutes to take control of the tie.

Jack Walder’s incisive pass from the centre circle released Wheeler and when he was sent tumbling by Barrie Matthews’ clumsy challenge the referee awarded a penalty on the say-so of his assistant and Rivers made no mistake from the spot.

Rooks and their vociferous fans were in dreamland a minute later when Rivers latched on to a fine pass from Brinkhurst and although Lovett managed to parry his shot the ball ran into the path of Scott Chamberlain who made no mistake from close range.

The visitors seemed to lose focus and were fortunate not to find themselves a man down when Stuart Lake upended the mercurial Wheeler but was shown a yellow card along with Chamberlain who was booked for his protests in the melee which followed.

Hampton gave themselves a lifeline three minutes before the break when Dundas was allowed time and space to meet Matthews’ free-kick with an unchallenged header which he guided past Banks and in injury time Matthews saw a curling right-foot free-kick miss the target by inches.

But after the excitement of the first period the second half was a big anti- climax – not that Lewes were complaining.

They managed to restrict Hampton to just one sight of goal in the 72nd minute when Lee-Charles broke into the box on the left-hand side to get in an angled drive which shaved the far post.

The visitors dominated territorially and Lewes failed to muster a single shot on target in the second half but with Banks handling superbly and the defenders in front of him doing a diligent job they were deserved winners.

Lewes: Banks, Barness, Sutton, Pearson, Walder, Breach, Wheeler (sub Pople 90), Keehan, Rivers (sub Royce 62), Chamberlain (sub Foreman 69), Brinkhurst.

Hampton: Lovett, Inman (sub Scarborough 24), Matthews, Jeffrey, Braithwaite, Tyson, Lake, Lee Charles, Dundas, Yaku (sub Quishie 78), Collier.

Attendance: 217.