Hendon were without a competitive fixture for the second straight weekend so a friendly against Cheshunt was arranged at very short notice for last Saturday. The Ryman League Division One North side, who lie second behind Yeading on goal difference, had been without a game save for a Bryco Cup tie in midweek for a similar length of time and were happy to provide the opposition.

Quite how pleased they were after the game is another matter as they lost two players to ankle injuries in the first half: Carl Ashton was stretchered off inside the opening 10 minutes and leading scorer Leon Archer lasted barely 40 minutes.

Almost all the Hendon first-team squad saw action, with Jon-Barrie Bates the only absentee. With unlimited substitutes, Hendon had 7 on the bench, including goalkeeper Dave King allowing Dean Lindsay to make a start and Dale Binns, looking for his first action since the end of August.

The opening exchanges were quite even, but Ashtons injury clearly affected Cheshunt, who fell behind in the 13th minute. A ball was played into the penalty area by Scott Cousins and was helped on by Martin Randall.

Ricci CRACE reacted like lightning. He got in front of his marker and lifted a shot over Russell Ling into the roof of the net.

There were chances at both ends, but neither Archer, nor his striking partner Darrell Cox got much joy out of the Hendon defence, where Mark Burgess looked assured alongside Mark Cooper and Steve Butler. Marvin Walker's runs out of midfield were more worrying and he looked an excellent player.

King replaced Lindsay at half-time and the substitute was guilty of bad misjudgement when he came out of his box to meet a diagonal ball from Andy Aransibia. Andre Deleon was denied by King, whose foot was ruled too high by the referee. The free kick came to nothing.

King then ran into the back of Aransibia as the pair chased a loose ball that was bouncing towards the corner flag. To Cheshunt's surprise no penalty was given, and they were astonished that King picked up the ball apparently outside the area without punishment either, although the latter incident was touch and go.

The goalkeeper did redeem himself with a couple of fine saves as the half progressed, while Hendon themselves had the Cheshunt defence at full stretch on a number of occasions. The best Hendon chance fell to Andre Delisser, who wanted too many touches and the chance went begging.

Eugene Ofori fired a couple of efforts narrowly over the bar and Binns had a shot blocked with Ling struggling to reach the ball.