Against Chesham, Eugene Ofori and Haworth were the starters and both had efforts that flashed inches wide of the target in the opening quarter. Haworth was then denied a goal by a goalline headed clearance by Steve Sinclair after his header had beaten Matt Ramsey.

At the other end, Dave King, the goalkeeper signed from Hastings, produced a brilliant double save, first to keep out a shot from Ben Smith, then plunging low to his left to stop triallist full-back Donovan Chisletts inadvertent rebound from going in.

Just before half-time a long cross from Chris Herron caught out the Hendon defence and Garry Sippetts was all alone inside the penalty area as he threw himself at the ball, but just failed to make contact with his header.

The second half was a much scrappier affair and it looked as if the game would end goalless until the 81st minute, when Mark Burgess was adjudged to have pushed Sippetts as they ran into the penalty area. Smith stepped up and confidently despatched the penalty past Thornton, who had replaced King barely a minute earlier.

By strange coincidence, the time of the Chesham penalty was identical to that of the one the Generals converted in the 1-0 victory over Hendon exactly 10 weeks earlier.

Three minutes later, Hendon should have had a penalty of their own (claims in the first half for a push by Simon Sweeney on Dale Binns had been waived aside), when first a Chesham defender appeared to handle the ball in a scramble just inside the penalty area, then Jon-Barrie Bates was sent crashing by a tackle from behind as he went to fire the loose ball goalwards.

Neither offence was spotted by the referee and then Gary Meakins had a shot which Ramsey did well to save and regather before Randall could reach the rebound.