Hendon made a shaky, but winning start to their defence of the London Senior Cup by beating Hellenic League Division One East club South Kilburn at their Vale Farm Sports Centre Ground on Saturday afternoon. In desperate condition, Hendon had to come from a goal behind before triumphing 3-2 in what was a typical banana-skin cup-tie.

South Kilburn's pitch, barely 300 yards from Hendon's home, gave huge concern to the Greens' management team and the match officials, with ill-fitting drainage covers only a couple of feet from the touchline and a playing surface that was, in places, beach-like, rutted, uneven and/or over-grassed.

Nevertheless, it was the strongest available eleven who took the field for Hendon and their lack of confidence in the surface, combined with recent poor recent results, meant that South Kilburn attacked with purpose and no little hope.

As early as the sixth minute, defensive miscommunication gave Scott Nelmes a great chance. James Reading made a fine save, but on the rebound Eri Deda somehow contrived to miss an almost open goal from eight yards. It was an escape Hendon did not learn from.

In the 11th minute, from an almost identical situation, Reading saving well from Nelmes, and this time Deda made no mistake with the rebound. It was no less than South Kilburn deserved for their enterprise.

The home team's keenness did, on occasion, go too far and two or three over-enthusiastic challenges incurred the wrath of the referee. In particular, Damien Bedierer was warned to tone his tackling if he wanted to avoid more serious sanction.

He didn't listen and in the 21st minute, dived in on James Bent a yard inside the South Kilburn penalty area. The referee had no hesitation in pointing to the penalty spot and showed Bedierer a yellow card for persistent misconduct. Bent took responsibility for the spot-kick and made no mistake, sending Chris Christie the wrong way. Had the goalkeeper guessed correctly, he would have struggled to make a save.

Steve Gurrin and Sam Baring coped well with Hendon's front two of Yacine Hamada and Billy Dunn, but Christie was still far busier than Reading, even if Craig Vargas looked far from comfortable partnering James Parker at the heart of the defence. Eric Hamilton linked up well with Nelmes and Jerome Scarlett and the trio gave James Burgess all he could handle and then some. The final ball into the penalty area, however, was lacking the potency to bring reward.

Hendon's most dangerous attackers were actually Bent and Casey Maclaren, whose runs from midfield were not tracked particularly well. Christie made three good saves when Hendon attacked in numbers.

The game flared up in a most ugly way six minutes into the second half. Bedierer jumped into the back of Casey Maclaren, who staggered away from the incident. Kevin Maclaren jumped in to protect his big brother and was rewarded with a kick and a head-butt from Bedierer. His response was a flurry of body punches which might have gone down well in a boxing ring, but the referee, unsurprisingly, took a much dimmer view of the incident - once a near free-for-all had calmed down - sending off both combatants.

Bedierer walked off without fuss, but Kevin Maclaren was still blinded by the red mist and needed four people to shepherd him away from the incident. Casey Maclaren was cautioned before play resumed, ill-judged words to an assistant referee being the reason for his yellow card.

But he was far more positive a couple of minutes later, when he gave Hendon the lead. The goal was entirely down to Hamada's quickness of thought and movement as he nipped in front of Christie and lobbed the ball over the surprised goalkeeper. Maclaren rose well and headed the ball into the net, despite the best efforts of Barry Oates.

For the next 15 minutes, Hendon were in control, but did not put the game away. Lubomir Guentchev delivered one teasing cross which just eluded a number of oncoming forwards and Christie made two or three more fine saves.

Both teams made their three changes, Danny Dyer, Dave Diedhiou and Jamie Busby - the latter after an absence of almost three months - coming on for Burgess, Dunn and Guentchev between the 68th and 79th minutes. For South Kilburn, Steven Enongu, Gareth Brobbin and Charles Sinikie took over from Gurrin, Daniel Jennings and Oates, respectively.

Hendon seemed to have made the game safe with six minutes of normal time remaining when Bent fired a diagonal shot past Christie. The ball was probably going just inside the far post, but was diverted into the middle of the goal by a desperate lunge from Brobbin.

This was the signal for South Kilburn to up their tempo and Hamilton struck the top of the Hendon crossbar, at the angle of the stanchion, with a floated shot that had beaten Reading. In the last minute of normal time, Scott Cousins threw himself in front of a shot from Dada and managed to deflect the ball off the bar before it was hacked away to safety.

But Hendon still had nervous moments ahead of them. In the third minute of stoppage time, Hamilton fired a drive which Reading did well to parry. The ball fell to Cousins, whose attempt at a clearance went disastrously wrong and ended up in the back of the net.

Hendon's fans, growing increasingly colder and more concerned, looked at the fading light and wondered if their feared third goal against would force and extra time period that might not be completed before the light failed. This wasn’t just natural football fans' pessimism because the Greens' supporters had seen a two-goal lead disappear in the final five minutes of their Championship Manager (Isthmian League) Cup tie at home to Wingate & Finchley a few weeks earlier, prior to a penalty shoot-out exit.

Those worries should have ended with what proved to be the last play of the match as Busby broke clear of the South Kilburn defence. Christie came quickly off his line to narrow the angle, but Busby shot past him. He failed to hit the target and looked on in horror as the ball rolled wide of the left upright. His embarrassment was, however, saved by the shrill blast of the final whistle before play could resume.

"I am pleased to get through the game without injuries," said Hendon manager Gary McCann. "It was a very difficult afternoon in very difficult conditions. It was very ugly at times."