Hendon put in an excellent performance this afternoon to see off a near full strength Braintree Town side who start their first season in Nationwide South next weekend. The scoreline was 3-0 in favour of the Greens.

The Greens took the chance to take a look at a few more new faces including goalkeeper Anthony O'Connor, defenders Ryan Wharton and Gary Hoy as well as striker Leon McDowell.

The first half was goalless with Hendon having the better chances despite Braintree having more possession. The best Hendon chance fell to Dean Thomas in the 24th minute when he sent his header just wide from a Wayne O'Sullivan cross. A few minutes later O'Sullivan saw his free kick go straight to the Braintree keeper Nicky Morgan, but shortly afterwards Morgan made a fine save to tip a shot from Dwayne Williams onto the bar.

The home side had their best chances shortly before the break when in quick succession Bradley Quinton had two shots go wide, while Robbie Martin saw his effort well saved by O'Connor.

Hendon's opening goal came in the 52nd minute when substitute Takumi Ake intercepted the ball in his own half and carried the ball past a number of home players and fired the ball home from just outside the area to complete a fine individual effort.

The second goal came nine minutes later when Wayne O'Sullivan spotted a huge gap in the Braintree defence to score direct from a 30 yard free kick leaving Morgan a mere spectator.

Both sides then made a number of changes but Hendon remained in control of the game and scored their third in the 70th minute when Ake put Thomas through to score from six yards to complete a comfortable win for the Greens.

Mention must be made of the Hendon defence which remained very solid throughout the game, with Anthony O'Connor looking comfortable in goal dealing well with everything that was thrown at him.

"I am delighted with the performance today," enthused Gary McCann after the game. "Without exception, every player was excellent today and didn't put a foot wrong."