Hendon Under-21s made it six consecutive victories in the Cherry Red Books Middlesex County League Division 1 Central and East and moved to within a point of second place as they defeated St John's Arsenal Deaf 3-0 at Chase Lodge on Saturday afternoon.

Not only have the Greens won six straight, they have recorded clean sheets in five of them. This was a very tough match and the only goal of the first half came from the penalty spot after 20 minutes. Stephen Cunningham was brought down in the box, he picked himself up and calmly slotted the ball home.

St John's made Hendon work really hard in the second half and it took almost 40 minutes for the Greens to extend their advantage. James Iyala finally broke the visitors' resistance after 84 minutes, and, five minutes later, Carl Ciagoro added a third goal.

With four matches remaining this season, Hendon have an outside chance of picking up a top-two finish mainly because second-placed Sporting Hackney's five remaining fixtures are all against teams in the bottom half of the table.

"I am very happy with the win," said joint manager Graham Bourne. "St John's make things very difficult for you and we had to be patient. My man of the match was Dean Roper, who was superb in central midfield. He is only a youngster, but I think he is a real find for us and I am sure he will progress."