Hendon showed good spirit in coming back from a goal down at half-time to take all three points from Harrow Borough with a 2-1 victory at Earlsmead on Saturday.

The match was an often fractious, sometimes spiteful affair, but the important thing for the Greens was that they returned to the top 6, just 5 points behind second placed Carshalton Athletic, although Canvey Island are 13 points clear at the top.

Greens boss Dave Anderson made one change to the team that won 3-0 at Canvey Island in the Bryco Cup on Tuesday night, Dale Binns making way for Dean Brennan, and taking a seat on the subs' bench.

Harrow had the first chance of the game. After 90 seconds, Kevin McKenna tried his luck from 20 yards, but Dave King watched the ball sail well wide of the target.

Martin Randall let fly from 25 yards in the 10th minute, but he put too much bend on his shot and Keita Karamoko was grateful to see the ball flash inches past the goalkeeper's right post.

Mali's former No. 1 showed his agility in the 26th minute when he leapt high to his right to claw away a header from Andy Cook. When the ball was cleared to the edge of the penalty area, Jon-Barrie Bates mistimed a tackle and was deservedly cautioned.

Randall should have done better, a couple of minutes later, when he got behind Dean Marney and tried to lob the ball over the advancing Karamoko. The first part was achieved, but the ball was overstruck and cleared the crossbar by about a foot.

Having dominated the game for more than half an hour, Hendon were shocked to fall behind. In the 36th minute, Cook appeared to be barged off the ball just inside his own half. The ball was fed out to the right wing, where Abdul Yoki danced around Scott Cousins and fired in a low cross cum shot.

King did well to parry the effort, but the ball fell to Harrow's top scorer, Ross FITZSIMON and he side-footed home from 8 yards, despite Iain Duncan's desperate attempt to clear the ball from the line.

Hendon players were becoming increasingly frustrated as decisions went against them. Pat Gavin, against his former club, was aggrieved when Karamoko collided with him and was penalised, although the goalkeeper ran 6 yards into the Hendon man who was rising vertically to meet a dropping ball.

When Karamoko spilled a shot, Randall went to knock home a short-range rebound. The goalkeeper turned and dived into Randall's and received a kick in the head for his troubles.

As Karamoko received treatment Randall was cautioned by the referee, a strange decision given that the Hendon man was perfectly entitled to be going for a loose, bouncing ball.

In the 41st minute. Eugene Ofori attempted to block a clearance from Marney, but made no contact with either ball or man and Marney moaned and went to ground, The man in black turned to see what had happened and awarded a free-kick to Borough, using guesswork rather than any of his other senses.

More bad positioning from the referee resulted in Hendon's equaliser, in the 49th minute. Binns had replaced Bates at half-time and immediately made things awkward for Daniel Church.

This time, Binns sprinted past the full-back and whipped in a low cross. Randall and Marney missed the ball and it bounced up as Danny Moore tried to deal with the danger. Ofori was lurking behind him so Moore had to get some part of his anatomy on the ball.

He succeeded inasmuch as the ball clipped the top of his shoulder, by his collarbone. The assistant referee was shielded from the incident and didn't flag, but the referee ruled it was handball. Strangely, the referee did not see fit to even censure the defender.

The now-customary shenanigans from the defending team delayed the kick, but it did not deter COUSINS, who confidently spanked the ball past Karamoko.

Hendon continued to dominate, but clear-cut chances were few and far between. Binns remained a thorn in the Harrow side and he was at the heart of all of the Greens' best moments.

Unsurprisingly, it was a foul on Binns that led to the winning goal. In the 73rd minute, Binns was upended 5 yards outside Harrow penalty area. Dean BRENNAN and Cousins eyed up the opportunity and the former struck a beautiful curling shot into the net, via Karamoko's right hand. The goalkeeper's positioning was probably questionable because he was so close to his line when he dived.

A slew of changes followed, with Harrow sending on Simon Underwood, Fabio Valenti and Naoki Mouri for Yoki, Robert Charles and Osman Hasan, while Hendon introduced Fabian Forde at the expense of Ofori.

Hendon's back three of Antony Howard, Mark Cooper and Gavin were, on the whole, fairly comfortable in dealing with everything that Harrow threw at them and King handled every cross that came his way.

As the game moved into stoppage time, the big goalkeeper had to be very quick of his line to hack clear an through ball from Wayne Walters before Underwood could reach it. At the other end, Karamoko was nearly embarrassed by Brennan, who intercepted a clearance and was just wide from 45 yards with a first time effort.

"We were a little off the tempo in the first half," admitted Mr Anderson. "We preached patience in the dressing room at half time, and we got our rewards. I was going to bring on Binns for the second half and change the formation."