Hendon gave Chelmsford City all they could handle for more than half an hour on Saturday afternoon, but the Ryman League Premier Division joint-leaders withstood the pressure and romped away to a comfortable 3-0 victory in the second half at Claremont Road. The Greens had no answer to Chelmsford's quixotic tormentor-in-chief Jeff Minton - one of half-a-dozen Chelmsford players with Ryman League Champions medals with Canvey Island - who set up two of the goals and scored the other.

Road congestion forced Hendon to omit Ross Pickett and give Bontcho Guentchev the start, while Ryan Wharton's sudden departure to Diss Town meant the back four remained unchanged. A welcome addition to the subs' bench was Belal Aiteouakrim, who has suffered a miserable time with injuries over the past 12 months.

The Greens' bright start couldn't be translated into goals, although Dean Green, Lee O'Leary and Brian Haule all forced half=chances. Both Green and O'Leary tried their luck with shots from the edge of the box, but narrowly missed the target, while an excellent last-ditch tackle by Steve Ward stopped Haule.

Gradually, however, Chelmsford began to exert more control in the game and Richard Wilmot made a good low save from a powerful drive just before the half-time whistle blew while a free-kick from Minton - which led to a booking for Jon Munday - was just too strong for Ben Chenery.

In the 52nd minute, Hendon were awarded a free-kick for a foul on Rakatahr Hudson, ten yards from the penalty area. Wayne O'Sullivan curled in the free-kick but, before O'Leary could make a challenge from beyond the far post, he was cynically taken out by a defender. None of the officials saw the challenge, which would have been a certain penalty.

The officials also thought that another foul on Hudson, this time just inside the box as the ball bobbled about did not merit a free-kick or penalty, so Chelmsford were able to clear when James Parker's shot was blocked. The ball bounced out to Minton, who set off on a run down the right flank. His low cross was clinically despatched by Jason Hallett to give Chelmsford the lead.

In the 62nd minute, Guentchev broke through and forced a fine save out of Richard McKinney. However, play was brought back for a phantom handball decision, guessed at by the assistant referee - Guentchev used his abdominal muscles to control the ball on the blind (far) side of the flag-waver - who had not seen the two more blatant incidents in the penalty area. The free-kick was mishit by McKinney and the ball rebounded off Chris Duffy back to his keeper, who picked up the ball.

Hendon made an international change, removing Bulgarian international Guentchev and replacing him with young Japanese striker Takumi Ake. Unfortunately for Hendon the next major incident occurred in their penalty area and there was little question about the foul which gave Chelmsford a 67th minute penalty. Wilmot guessed right, but was beaten by Minton's powerful spot-kick.

That goal ended the game as a meaningful contest and it really became a matter of how many goals the Clarets would score. In fact they added only one more, in the 76th minute, when Chenery headed home a Minton free-kick.

Indicative of Hendon's lack of fortune on this afternoon was an incident in the in 80th minute. A low cross from Ake found O'Leary, who flicked the ball goalwards. The shot beat McKinney all ends up, but bounced off the inside of the post, took a bad hop past the oncoming Haule and the ball was hacked clear by a grateful defender.

After an altercation in the half-way line, instigated by an off-the-ball shove on Haule by Ward, a melee developed in the centre circle. Once again the three officials were unsure what had happened, but Hendon took off Haule, introducing Aiteouakrim, before anything more developed.

"They had too much experience for us and it was literally men against boys," said manager Gary McCann. "I can't criticise any of my team; they all battled really hard and I think we were the better team for most of the first half. Chelmsford are the best team we've met in the League this season."