Hendon booked their place in the London Senior Cup quarter-final, and a trip to either Fisher Athletic or AFC Wimbledon, with a narrow victory over Croydon Athletic at the end of a pulsating fourth round tie at Claremont Road on Tuesday night. The small band of fans who went to Claremont Road were certainly well rewarded in terms of entertainment as the result was in doubt until the last of the 120 minutes.

Manager Gary Farrell rang the changes following the defeat against Billericay on Saturday. In came Mark Burgess, Brian Fitzgerald and Shayne Demetrious, at the expense of Danny Julienne, Gary Meakin (both subs) and Ross Pickett (injured).

But the new faces didn't have the desired effect in the first half, at least in terms of the scoreline. Eugene Ofori hit the inside of a post after six minutes, Demetrious fired over the bar when well placed after 16 minutes, Ofori was just wide after 27 minutes and Mark Nicholls saw a free-kick tipped onto the crossbar and over by 16 year old Croydon goalkeeper Dean Rose in the 32nd minute.

By this stage Hendon were already a goal down, Matt Fowler converting a 19th minute spot-kick after a foul by Rene Street in the penalty area. And things got worse for the Greens before they got any better as Athletic doubled their lead six minutes before the break when nobody followed Barry Stevens run into the box and he shot past Dave King.

Julienne replaced Demetrious at half-time and he took barely a minute to make his presence felt with a mazy run, which came to nothing. In the 50th minute, Fitzgerald was denied his first Hendon goal by a fine save from Rose.

Croydon were lucky not to concede in the 53rd minute when referee Oleksandr Saliy ruled that Nicholls had used his hand to control the ball before shooting into the net. There is no doubt that the ball hit Nicholls on the hand, but it did so coming off the goalkeeper's body and if the Hendon striker hadn't been trying to avoid a collision the with goalkeeper, the ball would have struck his chest. Eight minutes later, a fine save from Rose denied Nicholls again.

In the 63rd minute, Nicholls finished off a fine move with a delicate chip to make it 2-1 and, for the first time, Hendon fans thought there was a chance of getting something from the game. In the 70th minute, Hendon were level when Rose came to collect a cross from Dave Nolan but had the ball knocked out of his hands by teammate Jon Waite. Nicholls pounced in a flash and lifted the ball just inside the angle of post and crossbar.

Croydon hit back and regained the lead just three minutes later. A free-kick from Danny Bolt was curled into the penalty area, King shouted, "Away", and nobody challenged Stevens as he headed past the keeper for his second goal of the night.

Again Hendon had to come back, but it seemed as it wasn't going to be their night when Julienne tried his luck from 20 yards after 76 minutes. The ball took a slight deflection and cannoned off the post before being hacked away to safety.

However, another substitute, John Frendo, took on the hero's mantle. With eight minutes to go, he ran into the box, ignored Dave Sargent outside him and planted a powerful low drive just inside the far post. Sargent was about to give Frendo a piece of his mind, until he saw the ball nestling in the net!

Nolan was the next to go close. Two minutes before the end of the first period of overtime, his flicked header of a Sergeant corner was cleared off the line by James Evans.

But Nolan did set up the winner in the 107th minute. He made a powerful break out of defence and found Frendo. The striker showed good strength and poise to hold off James Gibson before firing accurately past Rose. Six minutes later Rose denied Frendo a hat-trick with a superb save from a vicious swerving drive.

"In the end it was a good night's work," said a relieved Mr Farrell. "They outcompeted us in the first half and I brought on Danny Julienne to get us going in the second half. Then John Frendo took over from Brian Fitzgerald and he made an immediate impact."