Hendon travelled to Chesham United with a much smaller squad for their penultimate Saturday friendly and will have been heartened not only by a much better display, but also by the performance of a couple of players.

For the Generals, whose season starts next week, there were added problems as two experienced players, defender Paul Aldridge and striker Ben Smith, both limped off inside the first 35 minutes. Hendon meanwhile also lost a player to injury, but this was triallist Lamine N'Dour and not a first choice star.

Both teams struggled with a difficult pitch, a circumstance of the Chesham groundsman leaving the club and his replacement not starting. Both sets of players struggled initially, but Hendon clearly were the quicker to adapt.

N'Dour had already been replaced by Kevin Chakaodza when the game's first chance came. It went to Chakaodza, but he was denied by a block from former Hendon goalkeeper Darren Bonfield.

Aldridge injured himself, bravely stopping John Frendo has he ran in on goal after 32 minutes. And the Greens then denied themselves of taking advantage of Aldridge's misfortunate by kicking the ball out of play, instead of crossing into the penalty area.

After the break, Hendon extended their control, but couldn't find the decisive touch to bring a goal. The closest they came was after 63 minutes, when Chakaodza dispossessed a dithering Mosiah Polidore, rounded Bonfield, but rolled the ball inches wide of the right upright.

A few minutes later, James Parker rose to meet a corner and his header crashed off the underside of the crossbar with the defender on the line and Bonfield both well beaten.

In the final dozen or so minutes, Chesham finally put some pressure on the Hendon defence and Dave King had to make two saves, the first going down smartly to push aside a shot from Mark Fotheringham, then tipping an effort from John Lawford over the crossbar.

Manager Gary McCann said, "This was our best performance in all the preseason. We looked very solid in defence, passed the ball well and created chances. I actually think we were a little better in the first half than in the second although we created the better chances then."