DUBI Ogbonna scored a fantastic hat-trick as St Ives Town beat Dereham Town 4-1 at Westwood Road on Saturday to reach second round qualifying of the FA Cup for the first time in the club’s 125-year history.

Ogbonna’s three goals came in a game which was overseen by coach Errol McCammon with both co-managers Jez Hall and Warren Everdell away at a joint birthday and stag celebration in Spain.

Dereham actually took an early lead but Ogbonna’s three goals followed and Jon Stead finished things off with a late strike to ensure the club is in the draw for the next round of the world famous competition on Monday morning.

McCammon said: “We had a meeting, the managers and I, and we picked the team and we went on the game plan that we knew the way Dereham would play.

“The game plan worked in training and it worked very well today – we knew where their strengths were and we tried to work on their weaknesses and we did that.”

Luke Tuttle gave Dereham, who play in Division One North of the Ryman League, the same level as the Saints, their 1-0 lead in the 28th minute.

The goal came against the run of play with St Ives by far the better team for the first half an hour. Ogbonna had a great chance on just five minutes but couldn’t quite get enough power on his shot and there were further chances for Stead before Tuttle struck after the Saints had failed to deal with a run-of-the-mill corner.

It was a mistake from the young Dereham goalkeeper Andy Wilton that led to Ogbonna’s first goal. A goal kick in the 36th minute never left the ground and the ball headed straight for the St Ives striker who was standing just inside the Dereham area. Ogbonna won the race to the ball, took it on with some confident touches, and placed his shot past Wilton sweetly.

The striker’s second goal came in the opening minutes of the second half when he latched on to a Karl Gibbs pass and blasted the ball into the roof of the net from 14 yards.

He completed his hat-trick just 10 minutes later when he smashed a rebound home after Dan Bannister’s original shot had been blocked on the line.

Gibbs, Ogbonna’s strike partner, could have had a hat-trick of headed goals but the goalkeeper stopped all three of those chances - but the forward was excellent all afternoon and created many of the chances that fell to his team-mates in the second half.

St Ives played some breathtaking football at times at 3-1 and it was no surprise when Stead made it 4-1 when he beat Wilton with a drive across goal from the left with his right foot.

“We worked on trying to get lots of shots on goal,” said McCammon. “Everything worked to plan. I absolutely loved it but I think I would rather stay a coach than a manager.”

The draw for second round qualifying will take place mid-morning on Monday and we will tweet news of who both St Ives Town and St Neots Town will play in two weeks time.