STUART Bingham admits he’s starting to feel like he can win the UK Championship as he prepares for an Essex-boy showdown with Ali Carter today.

The 36-year-old, from Vange, kept his sensational season going with a 6-4 victory over Stephen Maguire to set-up a quarter-final meeting with Tiptree’s Carter, 33.

The match which gets underway at 1pm at the Barbican in York today, and will be screened live on the BBC.

And the newly-crowned Premier League champion, who also has two Asian PTC titles to his name this year, admits he’s starting to dream about a first domestic major tournament win.

“Yes, I do think I can win it,” said Bingham, after reaching the UK Championship last eight for the third time in his career. “Winning the Premier League has given me so much confidence.

“And people were tipping me on Twitter and Facebook to win here before it started, so that gives me confidence too.

“I’ve done a lot of hard work with my coach Stephen Feeney, and together with my manager Gary Purkiss we have a great team here. I know I have a tough match coming up against Ali but my game is in good shape so I want to go all the way.”

Bingham and Carter fell out a couple of years ago following a clash at the Welsh Open.

But Bingham says they’ve since resolved their differences, and talk about both recently becoming fathers.

“We’re local rivals so we’ve had our ups and downs,” said Bingham.

“But we’re older and wiser now and we’re both young fathers, and we’ve spoken about that.

“We’ve crossed each other’s path here and both said well done, so what happened in the past is behind us now, and we’ll be both just be focusing on this match.”