Hendon made it ten points out of twelve under the management of Gary McCann with a 2-1 victory over Folkestone Invicta at Claremont Road. Two goals in three minutes early in the second half were enough to bring the Greens three points and saw them rise one place in the table, to 12th, level on points with Northwood, but with three games in hand.

A thigh injury kept out Dean Coppard, so Steve McGrath came in for his debut, the only change in the starting line-up. Danny Blanchett was back on the subs bench, just a couple of weeks after undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery.

With eight points from 15 away games, Folkestone have the worst away record in the Ryman League Premier Division, but they didn't start the game like troubled travellers. They put the Hendon defence under pressure and After 15 minutes, James Dryden brought the best out of Dave King with a powerful drive which the keeper turned over the crossbar at full stretch. A few minutes later, Paul Sykes missed with a header from a good position.

Invicta goalkeeper Tony Kessell and his defence had communication problems, but although Eugene Ofori, John Frendo, Danny Julienne and Rene Street all had openings, none were clear-cut and Kessell was not really troubled.

An error by Street led to Folkestone's goal in the 35th minute. He failed to clear his lines properly and Sykes latched onto the loose ball. Sykes ran at the under-manned Hendon defence and rolled the ball into the path of Simon GLOVER, who swept the ball into the far corner after an unchallenged run into the Hendon box. It was the first goal Hendon had conceded in 266 minutes.

It should have been 2-0 a minute before half-time, but Invicta contrived to miss a treble chance. The effort came from Sykes and was well parried by King. However, the ball rolled invitingly into the path of Glover who had an empty goal at which to aim. His side-foot cannoned off the angle of post and crossbar, right to Mark Munday, whose shot went high and wide.

Mr McCann's half-time talk seemed to have the desired effect. Four minutes after the restart, a diagonal pass from Julienne should have been cut out by Will Dunlop, but he allowed himself to be outmuscled by Frendo, who suddenly had a clear run at goal. Kessell rapidly came off his line, but failed to accurately narrow the angle and FRENDO rolled the ball past him with barely enough power to cross the line.

Three minutes later, Paul Lamb committed a needless foul just outside his penalty area. The ball was curled to beyond the far post by Frendo where Street rose to head the ball back across the goal. Kessell had committed himself to going for the first ball and was hopelessly out of position as McGRATH rose highest to nod home the ball from four yards.

Another corner, a minute later, nearly led to a third Hendon goal and it was now easy to see why Folkestone were such poor travellers. Although Flanagan headed against the Hendon bar from a Paul Lamb free-kick, most of the action was in and around Folkestone's penalty area.

In the 68th minute, Kessell made a spectacular save to deny a rejuvenated Dave Hunt his first goal since returning from his three-month loan spell at Hertford and Ofori came close on two occasions, one of which came after a sweet piece of skill from Julienne kept the ball away from James Everett.

Ross Pickett replaced Julienne with a dozen minutes to go and he slotted into a deeper midfield role. As the game moved into its final minute of normal time, Blanchett replaced Frendo. But there was more drama to come as James Everett, who along with James Burgess and Frendo had been shown yellow cards, dived into a challenge on James Parker and Peterborough official Alan Catherall had little hesitation in drawing out both his yellow and red cards.

Mr McCann said, "This was a game of two halves. We were lucky to go in at half-time only 1-0 down, but in the second half, we could have won 4-1 or 5-1."