There is an old cliche about taking a football club as far as you can and maybe Alan Dowson reached that stage after seven years at Kingstonian.

He left Kingsmeadow after seven successful years in the summer of 2014, having been unable to take the club out of the Ryman Premier League despite flirting with promotion every year since going up to that level in 2009.

It would be wrong to use the word failed in relation to Dowson because the genial Geordie finished second in his final season in charge at Kingsmeadow, a position that in most leagues would leave you celebrating rather than facing the lottery of the play-offs.

When he took the job a few miles up the road just 14 months ago, few would have expected him to have guided Hampton & Richmond Borough to those same lofty heights of second place quite so quickly.

It bears repeating that Dowson took over a club in the relegation zone last September, but a recent victory over leaders Dulwich Hamlet and Tuesday night’s 3-1 win at Wingate & Finchley has underlined the Beavers as genuine promotion contenders this time around.

Dowson was clear before the season started that he expected Hampton to be challenging – “If I don’t do it then I expect to be out of the door” – and backing them to be around the top three or four.

It probably will not come as too much of a surprise at Ks either, a club he dragged up from the lower reaches of Ryman League Division One South, that the Beavers are establishing themselves as promotion rivals – although it should be pointed out that Tommy Williams’ side are among the clubs who could go above Hampton if they win their games in hand.

However, Dowson’s track record of turning losing teams into winning ones throughout his managerial career is pretty remarkable.

He may have a contract up to 2017, but surely his managerial acumen must be being recognised beyond the Ryman League and a small corner of south-west London.