Hendon, going for a third consecutive County Cup victory, were less than impressive attempting to cross the first hurdle, and were within a couple of minutes of one their most embarrassing ever cup exits when they trailed Potters Bar Town in the Middlesex Senior Cup at Claremont Road on Tuesday night. However, two goals in 3 minutes saw the Greens advance to quarter-final tie at Northwood early next year.

After 38 seconds Phil Turner fired in a shot that Dave King had covered as it flew into the side-netting. It suggested that Hendon's allegedly easy passage into the next round was probably not as given, even though Dave Anderson had picked his strongest possible line-up.

For the next half-hour Hendon were completely on top in terms of chances, but Eugene Ofori, Martin Randall, Andre Delisser and Andy Cook all failed to put good chances on target. Ofori was denied by a block by James Dickie after he tried to score with an overhead kick after a bad kicked clearance by Martin Steel.

In the 38th minute, from only their third incursion into the Hendon penalty area, Potters Bar took the lead. A clumsy challenge resulted in referee Matthew Downey awarding a penalty. Before the kick could be taken, Iain Duncan was cautioned, but the delay did nothing to upset Lee TALBOT, who sent King the wrong way.

Within 90 seconds, Hendon were level. OFORI had a defender right at his back, but he was still able to control the ball, turn and poke it into the corner.

After a poor first-half and a tongue-lashing from the manager in the dressing room at the interval, Hendon started the second half playing worse than they had before the break. The midfield lost the initiative and the defence was put under extended pressure.

Inevitably, in the 53rd mintue, it finally broke, although the deep cross from Dave BLOWER, which eluded everybody before ending up in the net was not the most likely source of the goal. This left Hendon 37 minutes in which to retrieve the situation.

Things got worse on the hour mark, because Duncan received a second yellow card for a clumsy foul - the referee missed seeing Duncan pulled off the ball immediately before this - and was dismissed.

Almost immediately, Delisser was helped off the pitch after receiving a kick on the leg. Dale Binns came on, forcing Scott Cousins to move to the right side.

The Potters Bar defence was in insipired form, although Randall, Ofori and Binns all came close with shots and Cook put a clean header just over the crossbar. Potters Bar had a couple of half-chances as the game moved towards the closing minutes, but they weren't taken, leaving Hendon with a glimmer of hope.

In the 87th minute, salvation arrived. COOK had become almost a 4th striker and when he controlled a Cousins cross, he had just enough space to turn and stab the ball into the corner of the net. His and the team's celebrations were more in relief than satisfaction.

Potters Bar were clearly heart-broken and it was no surprise that Hendon turned the screw. The winner, in the first of 5 minutes of stoppage time, was probably the first time in the game, that the bounce of the ball went Hendon's way.

Binns opened up the first hole in the defence. Another defender over-committed as the ball went across the penalty area and Blower's desperate attempt to block RANDALL's shot succeeded only in making it impossible for Steel to make a save.

Mr Anderson pulled no punches after the game, saying, "I thought we were very poor in the first half. I had stressed to the players the importance of taking this game seriously and we didn't do that. Our approach was all wrong and I was very annoyed at half-time."