Lewes can look to a brighter future according to the head of Premier League Hull City’s centre of excellence.

The Rooks’ under-18s turned in a terrific display as they lost 2-1 to the Tigers in the third round of the FA Youth Cup at the Dripping Pan on Monday night.

Although the gate was given as 529, it was more like 650 when the take-up of 300 free tickets given out to local schools was taken into account.

Lewes are in deep financial trouble at the moment and the threat of administration still hangs over them.

But Hull’s centre of excellence manager Billy Russell was impressed by the young Rooks and believes they could provide the lifeblood for the future of the club.

Russell knows his stuff after a career which took in spells at Everton, Celtic, Doncaster, Scunthorpe and Rotherham, making more than 450 League appearances in the process.

The 49-year-old, who has also been caretaker manager of Hull on three occasions, said: “It was a good game, Lewes were very well organised and maybe if their finishing had been a bit better it could have been a different story.

“The boys did well. The boy on the right wing (David Wheeler) was a threat all night and one or two of the boys at the back looked very strong. You can see why they have got to this stage in the competition.

“They tried to play football all the time and, to their credit, they overplayed which is a great thing. I like to see boys playing passes from the back out. I have watched a lot of youth football and when you get down to the lower leagues players tend to kick it long but they played well.”

Russell was well aware of Lewes’ current financial plight but believes fans can take heart from what they saw on Monday.

He added: “There is definitely hope for the future. There were lots of local boys which meant they got a big crowd tonight and I believe they got more here than for the first team which is fantastic.

“For a club like Lewes to get local boys playing is fantastic and one or two out there showed they can do it.”