Hendon reached the second qualifying round of the FA Carlsberg Trophy, and a tie at Ryman League Division One North AFC Sudbury, after a second-half Lee O'Leary goal was enough to be beat Harrow Borough at Earlsmead on Saturday afternoon. It was a match of few chances, and fewer cards, but one of the cards was a red for Borough's Ronayne Marsh-Brown, four minutes after Hendon had taken the lead.

Both teams were much changed from their Championship Manager Cup meeting five days earlier and Hendon gave a debut to full-back Jonathan Coke, signed from Leatherhead. James Burgess was named on the bench for the first time since he suffered a foot injury in a preseason friendly against QPR.

The match followed a similar pattern to last season's two League encounters - Harrow dominating, but failing to score, and Hendon gradually exerting control before going on to win. After two minutes, Troy Hewitt powered an angled drive off the top of the Hendon crossbar from 15 yards.

Rain showers an hour before the match and during the opening quarter made the pitch rather slick and a number of players had trouble keeping their feet. That said, none of their inconveniences led to openings for their opponents.

Harrow's next chance came after 25 minutes, when a goalmouth scramble led to another Hewitt shot which beat Berkley Laurencin, but this one was blocked close to the line by James Parker. Laurencin made other smart save, at his near post, but those efforts apart, Harrow had little to show for their domination.

And, when Hendon finally launched a noteworthy attack of their own, they should have opened the scoring. Lubo Guentchev was the instigator, running at, and around, Marsh-Brown before shooting at goal. Nick Jupp made a good save, but succeeded only in pushing the ball straight to Kevin Maclaren.

Although the angle was quite acute, either an effort on target or a pass to one of the unmarked Aaron Morgan or Belal Aite-Ouakrim would surely have broken the deadlock. Instead, Maclaren's drive flew across the face of goal, too strong for a silver-shirted forward to divert into the goal.

In the first minute of added time before the interval, Rocky Baptiste worked himself an opening. His low shot was on target, but Laurencin was well placed to make a save and did even better to make sure the ball didn't squirm away from him towards one of two Harrow forwards sniffing the chance of a rebound.

With a strong wind at their backs in the second half, Hendon looked the more assured and may the conditions may well have explained Borough's first-half domination. Two minutes into the period, Aite-Ouakrim controlled a pass 25 yards out, turned and fired a dipping volley.

Jupp watched extremely gratefully as the ball flew a foot or so wide of the left upright. Had it been just inside the post, Jupp would have been picking the ball out of the net because he made no attempt to reach the shot.

Five minutes later, Aite-Ouakrim tried his luck again. This time his effort narrowly missed the right post, though Jupp had this one covered better.

All the match's meaningful incidents came in a seven-minute spell midway through the second half. After 61 minutes, Parker was penalised for a push on Baptiste.

Marsh-Brown curled in the free-kick and picked out the giant frame of the unmarked Dean Marney. It was a free header from barely 10 yards, but Marney powered his attempt of the clubhouse wall behind the goal. It was a glorious chance and one that Borough grew to rue in the following 60 seconds.

From the goal-kick the ball bounced in the centre-circle where Jamie Busby was fouled. Harrow players felt that Busby had handled the ball before a Borough player knocked him over, but the referee gave Hendon the free-kick, which Busby played quickly through a forest of legs.

Both Morgan and Aite-Ouakrim, who reached the ball first, reacted quicker than any Harrow player and the latter was left with only one defender to beat. Having got around Danny Leech, Aite-Ouakrim could have squared the ball to Morgan or taken the shot himself.

Jupp saved well with his legs, blocking the Aite-Ouakrim shot out of play for corner. Harrow were very slow to reorganise as Busby ran over to take the set-piece and no one was even close to O'Leary as he rose to meet the corner kick. Kwasi Frempong was stationed on the goal-line but his attempt to clear the ball succeeded only in knocking it off the underside of the crossbar and over the line.

From the restart, Hendon lost concentration and Ryan Watts hit an early shot which surprised Laurencin. The ball went under the goalkeeper's body and seemed certain to be rolled into the net by Hewitt, until Scott Cousins dived in and made a magnificent clearance.

In the 68th minute, Marsh-Brown unceremoniously, and illegally, halted an Aite-Ouakrim run. It certainly merited a yellow card. Coke ran in to let the full-back know he didn’t like the foul. Marsh-Brown reacted by striking Coke in the face and the referee, who had an excellent game, wasted no time in producing a red card.

Almost immediately, Harrow replaced Hewitt with Kurt Morlese, a striker for a striker. And soon after Daniel Wishart had come on for Aite-Ouakrim, Baptiste went off, substituted by James Fraser. Although Dewayne Clarke did play further forward, Harrow essentially didn’t add much to the attacking options with those changes. Not that either Hewitt or Baptiste had got much change out of Craig Vargas and Parker in the previous 40 or so minutes.

With the man advantage, Hendon showed excellent commonsense in keeping possession of the ball. Guentchev and Morgan both had half-chances to extend the lead, but couldn't take them.

At the other end, Harrow were kept pretty much at arm's length, apart from a free-kick in a dangerous position close to the penalty area. The box was filled with red shirts and silver ones, too, but they all became spectators as the ball was curled into the arms of a fan behind the goal.

With one minute of normal time remaining, Hendon decided to shore things up by introducing Burgess for his first competitive appearance of the season - and 301st in a Hendon shirt - at the expense of Guentchev.

"We have played Harrow five times in the past ten months and I think we know each other too well," said Hendon manager Gary McCann. "Harrow put us under a lot of pressure in the opening half-hour but after we changed our formation, I thought we were the better team.

"There were very few chances at either end, but I don't think it would be fair to say it was a smash and grab raid."