Hendon returned to winning ways, having earlier ended a long goal drought, when a last-gasp Scott Cousins screamer resulted in a 2-1 defeat of Canvey Island at Vale Farm on Tuesday night. Although the Greens remain in 15th place in the Ryman League Premier Division table, they are now eight points clear of the clubs in the relegation places.

Cousins returned to the starting line-up along with Lubomir Guentchev, replacing Peter Dean and the departed Anthony Thomas - his loan spell having ended. Dean was on the bench, along with Bradley Thomas, Danny Dyer, James Reading and Pat O'Donnell, the latter's first appearance on a Hendon team-sheet since November.

Hendon started brightly on a firm-looking pitch and soon asked questions of the Canvey Island defence. The answers, at least in the early going, were not right ones.

The last time Guentchev had started a match for Hendon, the opposition was South Kilburn in the London Senior Cup in December and Saturday's substitute appearance at Carshalton was his first since the 3-1 home victory over Harrow Borough at the start of January.

But it didn't take him long to make a big impact. Collecting a through ball, Guentchev stumbled as he took his first touch, but it was enough to give him space to get around Chris Moore. He regained his balance and, as James Russell came off his line, the Bulgarian drilled a shot high into the net.

Moore soon suffered an injury and although he continued, he didn't have a huge amount of mobility. His strength, however, is in aerial challenges, so conceding a succession of corners was not a bad tactic for Canvey.

The Gulls did, however, nearly pay a heavy price when Cousins picked out Jamie Busby, lurking outside the penalty area. Busby's strike was powerful and true, but Russell made an excellent save, pushing the ball away from danger at full stretch.

That near thing seemed to wake up Canvey Island because they began take a grip of the game. And it wasn't long before they were on level terms.

A 28th-minute attack down the Islanders' right wing wasn't slowed down, though when the ball was played towards the penalty area, it seemed as if the danger may have passed. However, the ball went to Jon Edwards, who struck a superb 25-yarder into the top corner, giving Berkley Laurencin no chance.

It was only the second goal conceded by the Greens in five and a half matches, but they didn't let affect them too much. Although Canvey may have enjoyed the bulk of possession for the rest of the first half, they found the Hendon defence, well marshalled by James Parker, impossible to break down.

Credit must go to the whole of the back five, Laurencin in goal, the full-backs Dave Diedhiou and Cousins, and centre-backs Parker and Craig Vargas, though the defensive work of the midfield, most notably James Burgess and Kevin Maclaren, deserves mention. That said, with Lee O'Leary and Jamie Busby also helping out, it left the front men rather isolated.

Nevertheless, it was Hendon who looked better in the early part of the second half. Chances for both teams remained at a premium and with the referee content let the players get on with the game, there was always something of interest going on.

The first substitution of the match came with 20 minutes to go, Leon Gordon replacing Jason Hallett for Canvey. The Gulls' goalscorer Edwards left the game six minutes later, feeling unwell, and Kevin Dobinson took over from him.

But in those six minutes, there were three noteworthy incidents. Moments after Gordon's arrival, Moore made a magnificent goal-line clearance, stretching out a long leg to block a shot from Busby after good work by Guentchev and Casey Maclaren had created the opening. The ball went back to Busby, and his second effort was blocked too.

A free-kick, conceded by Hendon just outside their penalty area, gave Canvey an excellent chance to take the lead. When the ball was played into the danger area, no one picked up Jay Curran, but he could not divert it into the almost unguarded goal.

Play went back up to the other end and a mazy run from Diedhiou was stopped by a tackle from Andrew West, who played the ball first, then made contact with the Hendon player. Diedhiou was off-balance as the defender caught his heel, but it was neither a penalty - as some Hendon players demanded - nor was it a dive - as the Canvey contingent insisted.

Tempers frayed momentarily, but the referee let them calm down before issuing a stern lecture to West and Diedhiou. It was commonsense officiating and the official deserves credit for it.

Hendon made their first change with six minutes of normal time remaining, Dean replacing Burgess in a clear expression of intent to go for a winning goal. And the Greens received their just reward for this enterprise in the last minute of normal time.

A ball was cleared five to ten yards outside the Canvey penalty area. Waiting, with intent, was Cousins, who ran onto the loose ball and struck a stunning 25-yard drive that flew past the statuesque Russell. It was a goal worthy of winning any match.

Dyer came on for Guentchev three minutes into stoppage time as Hendon wound down the clock, but they had one more moment of worry. Cousins was off-balance as he pulled back Gabriel Fanibuyan close to the left-back corner flag, collecting a caution for the offence.

The ball was curled into the penalty area and it appeared to deceive Laurencin, who didn't get a touch on it as dropped towards the goal. Hendon players and fans breathed a sigh of relief as it landed just beyond the far post.

"When Scott ran in to shoot at goal," said delighted Hendon manager Gary McCann, "I wanted him to work the goalkeeper. But he struck it so well that the keeper was no more than a spectator. It was a brilliant strike and worthy of winning any match.

"I was very pleased with the overall performance, especially on the offensive side. The players were told to shoot more and they did this, putting a number of efforts on target.

"We looked the more likely to score and were defensively as good as we have been in the past few games."