WING WONDER Sean MacAuley reckons Hampton and Richmond Borough will now catch title rivals AFC Wimbledon.

Not only that, but he believes the Beavers will and go on and beat AFC in a possible Blue Square South title decider at the Beveree Stadium on April 18.

The title race looked to be over last week when Hampton went down to a shock 4-0 defeat at Welling, with AFC beating Dorchester.

But Hampton bounced back on Saturday by thrashing Chelmsford 4-1, while Welling did them a favour by beating AFC.

And should the Beavers win their game in hand, they will be just three points behind AFC.

MacAuley said: "We will definitely catch them. With the game in hand and the home match against them we can do it.

"I reckon we'll do a job on them. Everyone knows they've got a huge crowd, but we got a draw at their place and can definitely do it.

"The Welling result was a bit of a reality check. The manager had a long chat with us in training on Tuesday and told us we had to bounce back."

MacAuley played a starring role against Chelmsford, but it was defender John Scarborough who nodded them into a 16th-minute lead.

Former Brentford striker Chris Moore levelled on 65 minutes, but just two minutes later Ian Hodges put Hampton back in front.

Enter super-sub Lawrence Yaku, who added a four-minute brace in the final 10 minutes to complete the rout.

"Not bad for a 35-year-old!" said Hodges of strike-partner Yaku.

"His confidence has been low recently but he took those chances brilliantly.

"It was a massive win, especially with Wimbledon losing. We'd still rather be in their position, but they've never beaten us and anything can happen now."

However, boss Alan Devonshire warned there may still be a few surprises yet to come in the title race.

He said: "I still expect there to be lots of twists and turns. The home game against Wimbledon will be huge, but we must win the other games first.

"The Welling game was our worst defeat for three years, but these things happen and we've shown it was just a blip.

"No one's talked about little old Hampton all season, but the players have given me everything and we're still in there."

Influential midfielder Francis Quarm is available to play against Havant & Waterlooville in Saturday's home game after serving his one match suspension against Chelmsford.

Meanwhile, Hampton have signed former Staines Town star Jon McDonald as cover at left-back.

* STAINES boss Steve Cordery has moved to replace McDonald by swooping for former Peterborough left-back Mark Coulson, from Hemel Hempstead.

Coulson made his debut in Tuesday night's goalless draw with Horsham, which despite being their fourth stalemate in a row, ensured a Ryman Premier play-off place for the Swans.

That followed a 2-2 draw with Wealdstone on Saturday, in which

Staines twice took the lead, through Leroy Griffiths and Richard Butler.

Ashford Town (Middx) shipped two goals in the first four minutes as they lost 3-2 at Tooting & Mitcham on Tuesday, with Byron Harrison's brace not enough to salvage a point.

The shoe was on the other foot on Saturday as Ashford led 2-0 at Tonbridge through Harrison and Warren Harris, but conceded three in the last three minutes to lose 3-2.