National League South new-boys Hampton & Richmond Borough underlined their impressive credentials when ending St Albans City’s unbeaten home record with an absorbing 4-2 victory over Ian Allinson’s Saints on Saturday.

Playing in front of the first four-figure crowd seen at Clarence Park this season, St Albans started the game in electrifying form and it would have been of little surprise had they been a couple of goals to the good inside the opening 20 minutes.

But, this is an exceptional Hampton side constructed by Alan Dowson and scoring freely is their speciality.

They, despite conceding a fair number of goals already this season, defend well, attack with great pace, their passing game is superb and the work rate is phenomenal; a season long challenge for the title cannot be ruled out.

The Beavers made one change from the side that hammered Dartford 4-1 on Bank Holiday Monday with Leon Solomon replacing the injured Christian Jolley.

After four straight wins City showed three changes from the side that won at Weston-super-Mare.

Ben Martin, Shaun Lucien and Dipo Akinyemi all received a recall, as Ryan Johnson (with the Northern Ireland U21 squad), Matt Ball and George Casey all stood down.

Hampton’s record of not losing any of the eight most recent meetings between the two clubs looked to be under threat early on as City attacked the York Road goal with genuine menace.

Louie Theophanous, fed by Junior Morias, dragged the first shot of the game a few yards wide.

On five minutes the Beavers had to dig deep to keep City out following the first of many long throws by Saints skipper Lee Chappell into the Hampton penalty area.

Hampton ‘keeper Aaron Howe, under pressure from Martin, punched the ball unconvincingly towards the edge of the penalty area where Morias sent a blistering half volley towards the back of the net only for Beavers captain Kieran Murphy to divert it to safety via his left knee, just a yard from the goalline.

The pressure was maintained with Lucien winning the first of six corners to come City’s way inside the opening 20 minutes, while Akinyemi swept the ball into the side-netting from a tight angle.

In between times the visitors gave warning of what was to come when Harold Odametey seized onto Brendan Kiernan through ball to score, only for an offside flag to cut short any celebrations, while Solomon had a shot collected comfortably by James Russell.

Despite these threats to the City goal it was still the Saints who looked the most likely to forge ahead and it took a superb push over the crossbar by Howe, following Tom Bender’s excellent header from a Lucien corner, to ensure that they did not.

One of the outstanding performers was former Saint Jamal Lowe, who has surely never had a better 90 minutes at Clarence Park. Putting in such a sparkling display with England C manager Paul Fairclough in attendance was pretty good timing.

Lowe went close to opening the scoring when Josh Casey and Kiernan combined down the left with the latter cutting the ball back to Lowe whose toe-poked effort was cleanly taken by Russell.

But now Hampton were into their stride and on 28 minutes the Beavers scored their 20th goal in just eight National League South matches this season, and the build-up and execution were of the highest order.

Murphy and then Nathan Collier headed the ball towards the halfway line where Nicke Kabamba cushioned a volley inside to Kiernan who twisted to send Kamamba away with a defence splitting first time through ball.

As three defenders converged on the Beavers striker Kabamba calmly slotted the ball to Russell’s left for his fourth league goal of the season.

Behind for the first time at the Park this season, St Albans reply was swift with the equaliser coming just three minutes later.

Bender dispossessed Kiernan on the edge of the home penalty area and Martin sent a good ball out to Morias on the left flank.

Morias ran at Murphy then slid a gentle pass across the penalty area for Lucien to carefully place a shot under Howe from ten yards for his first goal for the club.

City now looked to be back into their rhythm and just two minutes later Lucien collected a pass from Akinyemi and drove in a fine effort from 30 yards that bounced awkwardly in front of the diving Howe, who needed two attempts to gather the ball.

But on 37 minutes the Beavers regained the lead with a somewhat soft second goal.

Casey and Lowe appeared to be going nowhere close to a corner flag until Casey picked out the ever dangerous Kiernan on the left side of the penalty area.

Twisting away from Josh Hill, the midfielder sent a low cross to Kabamba whose first shot was blocked by Bender but the Beavers striker was quickly onto the rebound and fired low into the net from eight yards out.

Just two minutes from the interval Lowe added to City’s woes with a stunning goal befitting his performance.

Casey, from inside the Hampton half, headed the ball down the left for Lowe to take possession and shrug off Ben Herd before leading Hill a merry dance, and then skipping wide of Chappell and, finally, simply placing a right-footed shot wide of the sprawling Russell from 18 yards.

City’s second half response was disappointing. Admittedly they were facing the best side that they have faced to date this season but there was a lack of invention and inspiration about their play, in truth the outcome seldom looked in doubt.

Experienced midfielder David Noble was handed a City debut at the start of the second half and the 34-year-old former Exeter City, Bristol City and Watford player, although short on match fitness, used the ball well.

On 62 minutes Hampton achieved their highest score in 24 visits to the Park with a goal that had an air of inevitability about it.

Casey played a corner short to Lowe who shielded it away from Noble before crossing left-footed for Michael Kamara to rise above Herd, possibly using the City defender’s shoulders as a springboard, to head past Russell from six yards.

A rout looked to be on the cards but within 21 seconds of the restart Theophanous had added another spectacular goal to his collection to raise hopes of a comeback.

A City attacked appeared to have broken down when Murphy ended a run by Ball – on for Scott Thomas – only for Noble to scoop a pass forward to Theophanous who chipped the ball up with his right foot, controlled it with his right thigh and then unleashed a wonderful left-footed strike from 26 yards that bounced in front of Howe before coming to rest inside his left hand upright.

Ten minutes later City’s hopes were raised further when Beavers midfielder Odametey was sent off for what referee Paul Howard deemed to be a dangerous tackle on Morias.

Video footage suggests that the Hampton player actually made a clean a contact with the ball without touching Morias and Murphy was cautioned for forcibly expressing the same opinion.

In spite of the numerical disadvantage Hampton saw out the remaining time in some comfort with some excellent passing that denied St Albans possession and cooled the prospect of a dramatic finale.

Hampton’s win takes them level with Maidenhead United at the summit of National League South while the Saints first home reversal sees them drop one place to fourth.

St Albans are back in league action on Tuesday, 6 September, when another newly promoted side Poole Town, the Southern League champions, are the visitors to Clarence Park.

A 2-2 draw for Poole at Wealdstone on Saturday was sufficient for them to replace City in third place. Kick-off is at 7.45pm.

City boss Ian Allinson revealed during his post-match interview that midfielder Ian Rees has returned to his former club Biggleswade Town for a month to gain some match fitness.

During the half time interval on Saturday former England internationals Les Ferdinand and Alan Smith were interviewed on the pitch by fellow St Albans resident, and Sky Sports colleague, Geoff Shreeves, as part of a campaign to raise awareness of prostate cancer.

St Albans City: J.Russell, B.Herd, T.Bender, L.Chappell, B.Martin, J.Hill, S.Lucien (R.Hoenes 67), Sc.Thomas (M.Ball 61), L.Theophanous, J.Morias, D.Akinyemi (D.Noble 46), subs not used: G.Casey, A.Iwediuno.

Booked: Thomas, Herd.

Hampton & Richmond Borough: A.Howe, M.Kamara, J.Casey, K.Murphy, J.Gasson (J.Hicks 54), N.Collier, B.Kiernan (M.Williams 89), H.Odametey, N.Kabamba, J.Lowe, L.Solomon, subs not used: B.Bishop, T.Jelley, S.Hippolyte-Patrick.

Booked: Murphy, Casey.

Dismissed: Odametey.

Goals: 28 0-1 Kabamba, 31 1-1 Lucien, 37 1-2 Kabamba, 43 1-3 Lowe, 62 1-4 Kamara, 64 2-4 Theophanous.

Referee: Paul Howard (Lewisham).

Att: 1,008.