Hampton & Richmond Borough striker Lawrence Yaku has hailed boss Alan Devonshire’s squad rotation policy for helping him to the goalscoring form he hopes can take the Beavers to promotion.

The 34-year-old bagged two goals and the man of the match award as Hampton beat 10-man Chelmsford City 3-1 on Tuesday in the first leg of their Blue Square South play-off semi-final.

Yaku has notched 17 league goals this season and with four in his last two games has hit form at the right time as Devonshire’s men bid for Blue Square Premier football next year.

Devonshire, who has used six strikers up top this season, was able to field a relative second string side on Saturday and still see them beat form team Maidenhead United 3-0, with Yaku bagging a brace to go with Marcello Fernandes’ opener.

And Hampton’s ageless striker - who believes he can still reach his 20-goal pre-season target - reckons that has been key to the Beavers approaching the end of the campaign firing on all cylinders.

“The fact we are so sharp at the moment has to be put down to the boss’ policy of resting players throughout the season,” he said.

“We’ve got the strength in depth and you have to say it is working for us at the moment. It has benefited me, especially in recent weeks. I couldn’t do it earlier in the season because most of the other strikers were injured.

“I’m disappointed I haven’t got my usual amount of goals at this stage, but we’ve got another game on Saturday and possibly another one after that, so maybe I’ll score a few more.”

Devonshire will need to juggle his options again having learned Hodges - sent off late on in Tuesday’s win for a second yellow card - will miss Saturday’s second leg.

And while the Beavers boss was not happy with that decision and the one that saw goalkeeper Matt Lovett given an early bath at the weekend, he is not going to lose any sleep over it.

“Without Hodgy and also John Scarborough we have lost a lot of height, so it is a blow and I’ll have to think hard about things,” he added.

“There is nothing we can do about it, so there is no point complaining. We just have to get on with it - as we have done all year - and see what happens.”

Hampton are out to avoid a repeat of last year’s play-off final heartache, but Devonshire insists he is looking no further than the weekend.

“We are at the half way stage and taking nothing for granted. We know how we felt last year and we want to put that right, but we are a long way from that just yet,” he said.

“The whole team played well on Tuesday - particularly the back four - but we know that if we make any mistakes it could cost us, so we have to stand up and be prepared to work hard again.”

Hampton’s next game: May 2 Chelmsford City (h), May 7 Blue Square South play-off final ???