Bedford Town with all three points having beaten the Eagles 2-0 with a much improved performance. The win leaves Hendon in 7th place in the table, just 6 points behind surprise leaders Carshalton Athletic.

Manager Dave Anderson made four changes to the starting line up. Gary McCann came out of retirement to replace the unavailable Dave King between the sticks, while Mark Burgess, Andy Cook and Ricci Crace came in for Richard Evans, Steve Forbes and Eugene Ofori. On the bench were Evans, Ofori, James Burgess, Ricardo Alves and Dave Hunt.

In front of over 600 spectators, Bedford started the brighter and had a free kick in the 5th minute after Mark Burgess was ruled to have fouled Darren Lynch, who took the kick but could only fire it into the wall.

Hendon scored with their first real attack in the 10th minute. Scott Cousins crossed from the left wing and Crace would have gained control of the ball in the area had he not been elbowed in the head by Chris Jackson, an incident that the referee failed to penalise or do anything about even after the goal. However, the ball ran to Andre Delisser who fed the ball to Martin Randall, who in turn rifled the ball into the net, giving keeper Ian Brown little chance.

Hendon then took the game by the scruff of the neck and three minutes after the goal Delisser controlled the ball, beat Jackson and fired the ball wide of the goal. In the 16th minute another Cousins cross was clincally headed home clinically by Randall, but the goal was correctly ruled out for offside.

The Greens continued to play some excellent football, and in one move passed the ball on the ground from one end of the pitch to another, forcing the Bedford defence to knock the ball out for a corner.

Bedford had a chance in the 24th minute when Iain Duncan was cautioned for a foul, but the Eagles were unable to take any advantage from the set piece and the ball was cleared easily.

On the half hour mark Delisser and Randall linked up well to cross the ball to Andy Cook, who hit a first time shot, only to see his effort blocked by Paul Covington. Three minutes later Bedford made their first substitution when the dangerous Lynch was withdrawn with a foot injury and replaced by Drew Roberts.

Hendon controlled the rest of the first period, with Delisser involved in much of the creative play. His life was made easier by the inability of Jackson to cope with his talent and experience.

The Green started the second half from where they had ended the first, and in the 54th minute an excellent cross from Randall was cleared by the defence, but the ball was fired back into the area, but Crace was ruled to be offside. A minute later the Eagles had a rare attack and nearly got in behind the Hendon defence, who were solid all afternoon, but Roberts was also ruled to be in an offside position.

Hendon continued to cause the most problems, and in the 63rd minute the lead was doubled. A Cousins corner was cleared back to him, he fired the ball across the area to Cook, who headed it back in the other direction to Steve Butler, who went to ground under a fair tackle from Liam Folds, but somehow, while in a prone position, Butler managed to fire the ball into the net from an acute angle.

Three minutes after the goal, Folds took a rather hurried free kick, but his effort caused no problems as it flew high over the bar. The Eagles then began to come back into the game as Hendon sat back on their lead and Roberts had two chances in the space of five minutes, the first was a headed effort that went wide of the goal, while the second was a lame overhead kick after Mark Cooper failed to put enough power on a backheader.

Apart from that the Hendon back four of Burgess, Duncan, Cooper and Butler dealt with everything that was thrown at them, with McCann having an untroubled afternoon in goal.

With ten minutes to go a long ball from McCann found Crace, who unfortunately was unable to get the right touch to create another goal. It was Hendon who had the best chances in the final few minutes, but crosses from Cook and Delisser to Ofori and Evans respectively didn't fall right for the substitutes and the ball was cleared on each occasion.

Deep into injury time Bedford had one final bite of the cherry but a shot from Daniel French didn't cause any problems for McCann. Soon afterwards the final whistle was blown and the three points were on their way back to London.

Speaking after the game Dave Anderson was very happy and said: "That was the type of performance we all expect from Hendon. It was a hard working, committed performance and we now need to reproduce that on a consistent basis.

"I must mention Gary McCann, who kindly came out of retirement to help us out today due to the absence of Dave King. It proves that his heart is still with the club."