A brace from Lubomir Guentchev and a first goal for the club by Bradley Thomas helped earn Hendon a 3-2 win at Canvey Island on Saturday afternoon.

Gary McCann made two changes to the starting line-up that beat Carshalton Athletic on Thursday evening, with Berkley Laurencin and Jamie Busby replacing James Reading and Florin Pelecaci.

It was the Seagulls who had the first chance when Laurencin slightly fumbled the ball, but he recovered well to smother the shot on the loose ball. The ball was released downfield, and Guentchev took advantage of a slip by Frankie Everett to take the ball into a one-on-one situation with keeper James Russell. The Bulgarian carried the ball towards the edge of the area and clinically slid the ball past Russell into the net to give the Greens a 3rd minute lead.

In the 10th minute Canvey had the ball in the net, but Jason Hallett was ruled to have been offside when he received the ball. There was no complaint from the home side about the decision.

Lee O'Leary then headed narrowly wide from a freekick, and shortly afterwards he fed the ball into the path of Busby who was just beaten to the ball by Russell.

A lovely move involving James Burgess and Peter Dean fed Casey Maclaren who was offside, and then an excellent cross from Guentchev nearly found Maclaren, but Tarkan Mustafa just got to the ball first to put it out for a corner.

Then on 25 minutes Hendon finally doubled their lead. A corner from Scott Cousins was flicked on by O'Leary. A Canvey defender half cleared the ball, but Dave Diedhiou headed the ball back into the mix and Thomas was able to bundle the ball home for his first goal for the club.

Canvey almost replied straight away, but the shot from James Rowe flew over the bar from just 6 yards. However, it was the Greens who continued to create the better chances, and from a similar corner move that created the second goal, the ball deflected off the back of Casey Maclaren and went wide.

As the game moved into stoppage time, Canvey rallied and pulled themselves back into the game when Hallett fired in a shot that beat Laurencin and deflected into the net off the post. Before the break, James Rowe had a shot go across the goal and wide of the goal.

O'Leary had the first chance of the second period, but his shot went over the bar, whilst Hallett looked to equalise in the 56th minute but he could only find the side netting.

Five minutes later the Greens had a great chance to extend the lead when O'Leary fed the ball to Diedhiou whose shot was cleared off the line. Thomas reacted first and fired the ball back towards goal, but was stunned to see Russell made a stunning point blank save to push the ball to safety.

Almost immediately Canvey had another chance to equalise, but Rowe could only shoot directly at Laurencin.

Hendon's third goal came in the 72nd minute. The ball was pumped forward out of defence, and Guentchev beat the offside trap. Finding himself in another one-on-one situation the youngster beat Russell in very similar fashion. Immediately after the goal, Dean was withdrawn in favour of Danny Dyer.

Canvey continued to play positively and Kevin Dobinson forced Laurencin into a great save, and with ten minutes to go, Laurencin couldn't hold a Canvey shot, Burgess needing to clear the ball off the line.

In the 82nd minute, Hendon introduced the first of two debutants off the bench in the shape of striker Stephen Cunningham, who replaced Guentchev. Cunningham has been an integral part of the Hendon Under-21 side as their leading scorer this season.

Three minutes later, Canvey Island were awarded a free-kick about 25 yards from goal. Greg Cohen stepped up and fired in a shot at goal, which Laurencin did very well to push onto the post and out for a corner.

At the other end, Cunningham crossed the ball across the 18 yard box to O'Leary, who in turn fed Casey Maclaren, who passed to Busby who fired narrowly over the bar.

The second debutant was then introduced, central defender Gianni Marotta, also a product of the under-21 side, replacing Scott Cousins.

The final action of the game saw Canvey score their second goal. Laurencin completely misjudged the ball, he appeared to think it was bouncing out wide of the goal, but it hit the post and Rowe was on hand to slam the ball into the net from close range.

"My target is to now finish in the top half at the end of the season," said a very happy Gary McCann after the game. "Whilst we still looked a bit nervous at times, we did more than enough to win the game. Lubo took both his goals superbly."