Hendon fans spent the last ten minutes of Saturday's victory at Walton & Hersham singing "We're going to win the League." Their enthusiasm, however misguided, was a joy to hear as the Greens ended their longest ever start to a season without an Isthmian League victory by beating the Swans 2-0 at Stompond Lane. The reality is that Hendon remain bottom of the table, but their goal difference is only one worse than Walton's.

And there was more good news for Hendon with the news that Gary McCann decided to retract his resignation and, he, Freddie Hyatt and Bontcho Guentchev were together in the dugout. Jazz Rose moved up from substitute to replace Sam Page in an otherwise unchanged starting line-up from the team that lost to Ramsgate in the FA Trophy a week ago. On the bench, Takumi Ake came in for the promoted Rose, while new signing Eseyas Yhdego came in for Harry Wheeler.

The Greens almost made the perfect start when Ross Pickett ran onto a through ball. Although he was in an offside position, the assistant referee - who got as many as five offside decisions wrong (it must be said both for and against Hendon) in the first half alone - allowed play to continue, but Pickett fired past Nick Gindre and the wrong side of the far post.

Four minutes later, Dean Green tried his luck from 25 yards, but rather scuffed his shot and there were better options on either side of him. Walton were contributing nothing in attack and their creaky defence looked likely to breached on a number of occasions.

The inevitable happened in the 17th minute. Rakatahr Hudson played a pass to Pickett's right. His marker was on the wrong side and Pickett turned him easily before running into the 18-yard-box and shooting low past Gindre just inside the far post. Pickett, a two-time former Walton player celebrated his first goal of the season with a mixture of joy and relief.

Danny Rouco, Green and Lee O'Leary all got themselves into good positions but failed to increase Hendon's lead as the Greens enjoyed their most comfortable first half of League action all season.

In the 41st minute, Richard Wilmot dived full length to make a spectacular catch of a shot from Bobby Trayner. Why he did it, even he was not sure as he realised the ball was missing the target by a good couple of yards. It would, however, have made a great picture for the photographer behind the goal!

Hendon's second goal belongs on a television programme, one that highlights bloopers. However, Gindre will never want to see it again.

In the 43rd minute, a poor backpass from Will Jenkins put him under unnecessary pressure. Green was quick to close down a return pass option and Gindre decided to show his footballing skills by dribbling past Green.

At this point he should have kicked the ball downfield. Instead, however, he thought he could thread a pass past Pickett to Martin Dunne. He failed miserably and Pickett, after taking the ball around the goalkeeper, slid the ball into the empty net.

Any hopes Walton entertained of a making a quick second-half fightback disappeared as James Parker, Wharton, Rose and Wayne O'Sullivan kept their concentration and the ball never went particularly close to Wilmot.

Unfortunately, as the half progressed O'Leary joined Walton's Byron Brown and Michael Murphy in the official's notebook, all for dissent after seemingly strange decisions had gone against them.

Rose and Wharton soon followed them by receiving yellow cards, Rose for an innocuous foul and Wharton for what began as a two-footed challenge until the defender withdrew one leg and made a clinical, one-footed block on Ben Thorne, who neither went to ground nor even took evasive action.

In the 70th minute there was an incident of real controversy. Green made a break which ended with a foul by Dunne. As Murphy was alongside the other two, it was clearly not a last man tackle, so the yellow card shown to Dunne was absolutely correct.

However, before the free-kick could be taken James Burgess said something to Dunne who reacted by pushing Burgess away. Pickett quickly moved Burgess away before anything further could happen but the referee, again correctly, cautioned Burgess for instigating the situation. He then, however, cautioned Murphy instead of Dunne and, of course, had to dismiss him (Dunne would also have been sent off).

As a reaction Hendon sent on Ake for the tiring Rouco in a bid to further unsettle the tiring and short-handed Walton defence. He immediately went close with a couple of efforts, the second of which almost deceived Gindre as it dipped a yard wide of his far post.

The chances continued to go Hendon's way and Hudson clipped the top of the crossbar with a 20-yard shot, Ake couldn't quite lift a lob high enough to go over Gindre and both Pickett and Ake had efforts cleared off the line in a ping-pong melee in the Walton six-yard-box.

At the other end, a pass down the left wing was overhit, but Trayner chased and played the ball back towards the penalty area although it was a good yard behind the line.

Both Wilmot and Wharton stopped because they saw the ball and player clearly behind the line - Trayner almost fell into the long jump sandpit behind the goal as he kicked the ball - but play was allowed to continue and the ball bounced off Wharton and trickled against the side-netting with the goalkeeper hopelessly out of position. For once a piece of luck went Hendon's way and the corner was dealt with easily.

In the 88th minute, Brown misplayed a pass down the left touchline and the ball rolled off the pitch and onto the running track. Wharton trotted after it, collected it, trotted back towards the pitch and looked to the referee for guidance as to where the throw-in should be taken from.

However, the referee responded by showing him a second yellow card and a red one for alleged time-wasting.

A minute later, Wes Goggin fired a 20-yard shot which Wilmot saved. It was the Swans' first on-target effort. There were six minutes of injury time, but with Hendon holding onto a two-goal advantage, it was an almost easy passage. Wilmot did make one more save, a better one from substitute Scott Edgar, but the Greens could also have added to their tally with a little more composure.

"There is a mixture joy, elation and relief," admitted Mr McCann after the game. "I thought we were in complete control for almost all of the game. But I also think we played very well on a very difficult pitch. Our passing was good, our defending was excellent, and we kept our concentration for the full 90 minutes.

"I have decided to retract my resignation. There are still a few things that I need to sort out and I will do that this week, but I will be back and giving 150 percent commitment to the cause from next week on."