Hendon produced one of their best performances of the season in beating Staines Town 3-1 at Wheatsheaf Park. The victory lifts Hendon up to 15th in the Ryman League Premier Division table, their best of the season.

Davis Haule was dropped to the bench, so James Burgess came into the starting line-up in the unfamiliar role of left midfield - and he took to it like a duck to water. Danny Rouco, Bontcho Guentchev, Takumi Ake and Jazz Rose were the other subs.

Although Hendon started quite brightly, Staines did likewise and, after seven minutes, it was the Swans who took the lead. Following an attack down the left, Ali Chaaban collected a pass inside the penalty area, turned Leach and fired a shot which bounced of Richard Wilmot's hands, into the ground, off a post and into the net.

Belal Aiteouakrim and Darragh Duffy had half-chances for a quick response, but neither were taken. In defence, Hendon didn't look totally assured against the ever-dangerous, Chaaban and Mark Nwokeji. One run by the latter caused Leach and Wilmot to have a misunderstanding. The result was that Wilmot, just outside his penalty area, had to head the ball away for a Staines throw-in.

Hendon's equaliser came after 18 minutes and as well as the three Hendon players involved, the referee deserves credit for his part. Dean Green made a break down the right wing, but he was unfairly challenged by a couple of Staines players. The assistant referee flagged vigorously for a free-kick, but the man in the middle allowed play to continue.

A fine cross from Green picked out the unmarked Burgess, whose first touch denied him the chance to shoot at goal. However, he kept possession and after turning away from goal, he passed to Duffy, who steadied himself and placed the ball beyond Shaun Allaway and a covering defender.

Seven minutes later, Green fired a shot into the ground. It beat Allaway but bounced over the crossbar. Where have the heavy, muddy penalty areas gone? The tide, however, was turning and Hendon were beginning to exert some control of the game.

In the 34th minute, Hendon took the lead. It is unusual for two centre-halves to be involved as creator and taker of the chance, but Marc Leach's corner was inch-perfect and captain James Parker's header flew into the net before anyone in the Staines defence moved. It was his first goal for the club and his joy was clear to see.

The Staines defence was now in danger of being overrun and their cause was not helped when Dean Thomas went in for a 50:50 challenge with Burgess. The ball needed two Paracetamol, Burgess got up and continued as normal, Thomas limped away and 20 seconds before the scheduled half-time whistle, he was replaced by Jake Newton. It must be stressed there was nothing untoward in the challenge and the two players shook hands.

In the second minute of stoppage time, Hendon stretched their advantage with a quite magnificent goal. Parker won a tackle just inside his own half and passed the ball to Duffy, who had come back to help the midfield. Duffy found Rakatahr Hudson, who looked up and spotted Jamie Busby streaking through the inside left channel.

The pass to Busby was inch-perfect and he carried the ball into the penalty area before laying off a square pass to Aiteouakrim. There was still plenty of work to be done, but Aiteouakrim danced between two desperate attempts at a tackle, changed feet to fox Allaway and rolled the ball into the net.

Staines came out for the second half determined to get back into the game. They forced a fair amount of pressure on the Hendon defence, but buoyed by a two-goal lead, they had much more confidence and held out fairly comfortably. Nwokeji had one header tipped over the bar by Wilmot but, apart from that, the accuracy of finish was absent.

Ake came on for Duffy five minutes into the second half, but it took half an hour before the Greens could point to anything resembling a good chance. However, for the final 15 minutes, the only team looking likely to score was Hendon. A cross from O'Sullivan looked likely to give Burgess a tap-in, but Darren Campbell, on for Richard Burton, took the ball almost off his toe and cleared the danger.

A vicious, swerving shot from long-range almost embarrassed Allaway. O'Sullivan let fly from 20 yards and the goalkeeper was relieved to gather the ball at the second attempt.

In the final minutes, however, Allaway produced a quite magnificent save to deny Leach a spectacular goal. The ball bounced to the centre-back just outside the centre circle in the Staines half and Leach spotted Allaway off his line. He let fly with a dipping volley that Allaway, at full stretch diving almost backwards, touched off the crossbar and out for a corner.

"I am very, very happy with the result and the performance tonight," said manager Gary McCann. "I won't be smiling until we are mathematically safe, but we did ourselves proud tonight and we were very good."