Hendon moved back into the top third of the Ryman League Premier Division with a superb 1-0 victory over Canvey Island at Claremont Road on Saturday afternoon. After losing at home to both Bishops Stortford and Sutton United, the Gulls were strong favourites to make it 3 in a row.

Martin Randall returned to the starting line-up, while Jamie Burgess took over from Richard Evans, also absent because of injury. Andre Delisser came in for his first Hendon start at the expense of Andy Cook, who was relegated to the substitutes' bench.

This was an excellent afternoon's entertainment, with both teams creating a number of chances in the first half. The first fell to Steve Forbes in the 15th minute, carving out the opportunity with a mazy run. His shot, however, flashed a foot wide of Ashley Harrison's left upright.

The ever-dangerous Lee Boylan had a clear header after 19 minutes, but he failed to hit the target. And the same player had an even better opportunity in the 34th minute, when a lucky ricochet fell his way and he had only Dave King to beat. Hendon's keeper dashed off his line and hurried Boylan into a lob that came down far too late to threaten the goal.

In the last minute of the first half, Jeff Minton burst into the penalty area. Again King was quickly off his line and Minton, with little angle to work with, slid the ball wastefully wide.

In stoppage time, however, he did find the correct range and he fired a fine shot that King did well to push aside. When the ball came back into the penalty area, a Hendon defender appeared to clear it from the line, but assistant referee David Belbin had his flag raised for offside.

It took just 63 seconds of the second half for Hendon to open the scoring. A free-kick from Scott Cousins was headed across the penalty area by Forbes and Steve BUTLER side-footed the ball just inside the right post. Harrison seemed to have his weight on the wrong foot because Butler's shot crawled almost apologetically over the line.

Three minutes later, Hendon almost doubled their advantage, when Eugene Ofori slipped a pass into Forbes, who danced past Ben Chenery before scuffing his shot into the arms of Harrison.

Trying to profit from this escape, Canvey upped their tempo, but they found the Hendon defence in miserly mood. Butler and Mark Cooper were magnificent in keeping Boylan and Neil Gregory very quiet and even the tricky Minton was held in check. Iain Duncan and Burgess stifled the width, while Jon-Barrie Bates was tigerish in front of the back four.

In fact, for all of Canvey's possession, there was very little for King to do in terms of making saves. Those crosses that did come over were gathered comfortably and the Gulls looked rather short of ideas.

Cook was brought on for the tiring Delisser with 17 minutes to go and he helped to shore up the midfield, especially as Hendon were happy to work on the counter-attack.

Ollie Berquez replaced the giant Gavin Cowan but he could not provide the inspiration. All too often, when Canvey tried to pass the ball out wide, it was overstruck and the defence was able to scramble in cover.

It also offered Hendon more of a chance to add to their lead and it nearly happened in the 84th minute, when Forbes' header, following a knock-down by Cook, was blocked a yard from the line by Chenery.

Lee Protheroe came on for the quiet Steve Parmenter, but he had little time to create the danger of which is more than capable. Ricardo Alves was Hendon's second substitute, coming on for Randall, and although he had less than 5 minutes on the pitch, it was rather eventful.

First, he burst into the penalty area, got the better of David Theobald and had a clear, if difficult, chance to shoot at goal. The Brazilian could not get enough power on the ball to beat Harrison.

As the game moved into stoppage time, Alves appeared hemmed in by the goal-line and Chenery, 6 yards from the right touchline. A step-over, a flick over Chenery's leg and a nimble leap took Alves clear at goal, albeit still near the line. Chenery tried to flick the ball out of play, but succeeded only in clipping Alves' heel and the Hendon player fell to the ground just outside the penalty area. The sound of the boots colliding was audible 30 yards from the incident.

Incredibly, referee Ian Crouch, decided that Alves had dived and produced a yellow card. Alves could not believe the decision and pleaded his case, but to no avail.

After the match, Mr Crouch told any Hendon official who cared to listen that the caution had been for diving and not dissent. When Alves was a half-second late trying to block a clearance, the referee warned Alves that he was skating on thin ice.

"I thought we played very well today and deserved the victory," said a delighted manager Dave Anderson. "Once we got our goal, we worked very hard to keep it."