Hendon completed a rare double over near-neighbours Harrow Borough and stretched their unbeaten run to 17 games with this 2-0 Ryman League Premier Division victory at Claremont Road on Tuesday night.

More importantly, while the Greens still trail champions-elect Canvey Island by 10 points (the Gulls can clinch the League on Good Friday when they face third-placed Thurrock), they are now a similar distance clear of the chasing pack.

The club's highest ever points tally was achieved in 1974, when they amassed 88 points from 42 matches; this year's tally of 82 - and counting - with four games to play, is now a clear second-best.

Unsurprisingly, with no injuries healed or suffered, Hendon named an unchanged 16 for the game against their local rivals, who had enjoyed a 10-day break from competitive action.

And it took just 12 minutes for Hendon to take the lead. A free-kick on the right touchline was curled into the penalty area. Steve Butler rose highest and nodded down the ball, right into the path of Ricci CRACE, who needed no second bidding to hook the ball past the hopelessly exposed Keita Karamoko.

For much of the next 70-odd minutes, the only reason Hendon couldn't extend their lead was the form of the Malian international goalkeeper. He single-handedly kept his team in the game, especially in the second half.

Nobody could question the commitment of the two teams and this was best summed up in the 24th minute, when Steve Forbes had four shots blocked in a single attack, two different Borough players throwing themselves in front the midfielder's efforts.

Just after the half-hour mark, Hendon were forced to reshuffle their line-up when Forbes had to be replaced. He first suffered a foot injury, but just after running that off, he got caught in the eye and when his vision didn't return to normal, he went off, with Dale Binns moving into a three-man attack.

In the 38th minute, Clinton Lamb made space down the right side and fired in a powerful drive which Dave King did very well to push aside. Two or three other opportunities fell Harrow's way, but the finishing was somewhat wayward.

The second half was pretty much one-way traffic. Butler was in a midfield role alongside the hard-working Andy Cook, Jon-Barrie Bates and Scott Cousins out wide. Antony Howard, meanwhile, reined in his attacking instincts to partner Mark Cooper and Mark Burgess in front of King. Up front, Harrow had fits trying to keep track of Eugene Ofori, Binns and Crace, who worked opening from all angles.

Karamoko produced outstanding saves to deny Butler after both 50 and 60 minutes, while he was a tad fortunate that a rebound of a defender hit Ofori on the shin before rolling to him. Had the striker been able to control the ball, goal number 27 seemed a certainty. In the 62nd minute, a defensive intervention was pushed aside by Karamoko, keeping Borough just about in the game.

Their manager David Howell rang the changes in the final quarter and the move rather rebounded on him. Not that Daniel Dyer replacing Clinton Lamb, former Hendon man Brian Haule coming on for Simon Underwood (also a former Green) and Robert Charles taking over from Abdulai Yoki were bad decisions. It was that Richard Goddard had leave the game with 15 minutes to go after suffering a serious head wound that saw him on his way to hospital before the final whistle.

Down to 10 men, Harrow were bound to leave gaps at the back as they looked for an equaliser and it played perfectly into Hendon's hands in the 86th minute. Binns ran at the Harrow defence, while Ofori peeled off to his left. The lone defender had to stay with Binns, while Karamoko edged towards the wide-open Ofori.

Spotting the keeper shifting his weight, BINNS let fly early and, even though there was a slight deflection, there was nothing that Karamoko could do about the shot which rocketed into the roof of the net.

Then, in the 73 seconds of stoppage time (an absurd amount given four substitutions, a goal, two cautions and three injuries), Karamoko flung himself to his left to keep out a rasping drive from Cousins, which would have been the perfect capper for the former Chelsea pro.

"We didn't play well in the first half," said manager Dave Anderson, "we didn't reach the standards we have set ourselves in recent weeks. But we turned it around in the second half and dominated it totally. It was worth coming out on a Champions League evening to watch a goal of the quality of Dale Binns."