Hendon produced one of their most accomplished performances of the season in flattening hapless Braintree at Cressing Road on Tuesday night. The final score of 3-1 was very flattering to the hosts, who could have conceded half a dozen more goals in a one-sided final half-hour.

Following the defeat at home to Carshalton at the weekend, Hendon made a number of changes, not only in personnel, but also in formation, with Mark Burgess replacing the departed Richard Evans in a 3-man defence, alongside Mark Cooper and Steve Butler. Iain Duncan, right, and Scott Cousins, left, were wide in midfield, with the centre manned by recalled Andy Cook, Steve Forbes and Jon-Barrie Bates, while fit-again Eugene Ofori came in for Martin Randall to partner Ricci Crace.

The early returns were very promising, with Hendon well on top in the early stages. But, in the 15th minute, the Greens were distinctly unlucky to fall behind. A free-kick outside the Hendon penalty area was played short by Dean Parratt, who received a return pass.

PARRATT struck a hopeful, long-range shot and got lucky when the ball struck a Hendon defender, took a huge deflection and left Dave King with no hope of making a save.

This led to Braintrees only period of dominance in the whole match but, even then, Hendon created 3 good scoring opportunities. First, Ofori tried his luck with a 20-yard shot, but Paul Rutherford made a save at the second attempt. Duncan took aim from a similar distance, but his effort went over the bar with Rutherford beaten. Then Forbes was denied by a goalline clearance from Mark Jones, following a header from Cousins corner.

The equaliser arrived on the stroke of half-time was thoroughly deserved. A short corner from Cousins was played back to him by Cook. Cousins whipped in a cross and OFORI, despite giving 6 inches in height to Dave Culverhouse, rose well and headed the ball past Rutherford just inside the near post.

After the break, it was one-way traffic. In the 55th minute, a rampaging run by Forbes was continued by a slide-rule pass behind the defender into the path of Duncan. His cross was met by CRACE who, leaping in the air, smashed a right-foot volley into the bottom corner. Apart from the technical difficulty of the shot, Hendons small band of followers enjoyed the skills that had led up to the score.

Hendons final goal, 4 minutes later, may have lacked the spectacle of Craces effort, but it was just as well taken. Ofori, ran onto a long pass downfield and beat the Irons creaking offside trap. Although Oliver Blackwell did get back and put himself alongside Rutherford in front of the Ghanaian striker, OFORI waited till they had committed themselves, then almost lazily lifted the ball over them and watched it bounce slowly into the net.

Randall replaced Ofori after 71 minutes and he came close to extending the lead, as did Crace on three occasions, once hitting the outside of the post. At the other end, King was little more than a spectator as Braintree failed to mount a serious challenge on his goal.

"I think we passed the ball as well as we have in the last 2 or 3 years," glowed manager Dave Anderson after the game. "The one disappointment was the number of chances that we missed.

"It was important that we scored just before half-time, but it would have been a travesty if we had gone in losing."