Hendon made it two straight wins - both by 2-0 away from home - with a victory over Wealdstone at The Vale, Ruislip, on Tuesday night. The Greens had a lucky escape in the first ten minutes, but took control in the second half and ran out comfortable winners.

With Bradley Thomas suspended, Craig Vargas was recalled to the starting line-up and he partnered James Parker at the heart of the defence. James Bent, his suspension served, had a place on the bench.

Wealdstone were also weakened for the match and the absence of both Lee Chappell and Alan Massey forced them into making a number of personnel and positional changes.

As much as Hendon manager Gary McCann - by his own admission - had got things wrong in the reverse fixture a few weeks earlier, he got it right on this night. Although Wealdstone admittedly dominated the opening 35 minutes, they rarely, if ever, looked as potent as they had for most of the first half at Vale Farm. Much of the credit for this has to go James Burgess, whose man-marking job on the usually dangerous Danny Spendlove snuffed out Wealdstone's most creative play-maker.

That said, the game may well have gone very differently if, in the eighth minute, Chris O'Leary's deflected header, cleared by Burgess, had been ruled as over the line by the referee or his assistant. By general consensus, the only argument was whether Burgess was a foot or a metre behind the line when he got to the ball.

Well-positioned neutral observers, as well Wealdstone players and supporters, all looked to the assistant referee and the man in the middle and neither awarded the goal.

Apart from that near miss, Parker, Vargas, Dave Diedhiou and Scott Cousins, backed up by Burgess at his most tenacious, combined to keep Wealdstone at bay despite plenty of possession. Berkley Laurencin looked composed in goal and did whatever was necessary without fuss but growing confidence.

Once Hendon had weathered the early storm, they began to grow in assurance and they forced Wealdstone to be more defensive, which has been their weakness, as evidenced by a club record of 24 matches without keeping a clean sheet. A long-range effort from Lee O'Leary, after 38 minutes, was saved by Sean Thomas, but that was Hendon's only noteworthy attempt of the opening half.

Going down the hill in the second half, and attacking the boggier and more difficult penalty area, certainly benefited Hendon, who soon took control of the match. James Gray and Darren Locke were forced to battle hard against Casey Maclaren and Anthony Thomas and Maclaren seemed to have a valid penalty appeal turned down when Gray went into his back before the ball reached him.

Ten minutes into the second half, Hendon took the lead. O'Leary collected the ball 15 yards outside the Wealdstone penalty area and had no defenders in front of him to force him wide. After taking a couple of strides and steadying himself, O'Leary struck a sweet 20-yard drive too early for Sean Thomas to get his feet ready and the goalkeeper’s dive was always short of the ball as it flew into the bottom corner.

The goal knocked the stuffing out of Wealdstone, who rather ran out of ideas. They made three changes in eight minutes just past the midway point of the half, withdrawing Adam Logie, Dean Smith and Ryan Ashe in favour of Charlie Mpi, Reece York and Mark E'Beyer, respectively. The fresh legs had little impact in an attacking sense.

One former Wealdstone player opened the scoring and, 11 minutes from time, another ex Stone was fouled for the clinching second goal. Peter Dean's diagonal run across the penalty area, chasing Casey Maclaren's pass, was illegally halted by Callum Martin, and the defender was cautioned for the foul to concede a penalty.

Sean Thomas has a fine reputation for saving penalties, so the pressure on Jamie Busby was heightened. But the goalkeeper moved early, taking two giant strides to one side and leaving the opposite side of the goal gaping. Busby needed no second bidding and struck the ball firmly into the vacant area. Thomas, realising he had gone too far, too soon, didn't even bother to dive.

Hendon, comfortable with their two-goal advantage, made three changes in the last ten minutes of normal time, Belal Aite-Ouakrim taking over from Anthony Thomas, Kevin Maclaren replacing Peter Dean and Bent coming on for Busby.

Unfortunately, the younger Maclaren's only contribution was a bad foul, which might - on another night - have earned him a red card rather than the yellow shown to him.

"I haven't enjoyed much success in the League against Wealdstone," said a delighted Mr McCann, "but tonight was well worth the wait. We defended very well and produced a very accomplished and measured performance.

"We set up in a different way and it worked very well. Every one did their job and I thought James Burgess was outstanding. We knew they would come at use early and we held them well for the first 35 minutes.

"After that we came more into the game and began to ask them questions."