Hendon produced, for 60 minutes, probably their best performance of the season in dismantling Tooting & Mitcham United in the semi-final of the London Senior Cup at Imperial Fields on Tuesday night. The Greens will face Croydon Athletic in the Final (date and venue to be confirmed) after they crushed Harrow Borough 5-0 in the other semi-final.

A fourth game in eight days meant that Hendon again shuffled their pack, with James Burgess, Mark Kirby, Lubomir Guentchev, Glenn Garner and Brian Haule coming into the starting line-up in place of the rested Danny Dyer, James Parker, Marc Leach, Jamie Busby and Harry Hunt, all of whom were named as substitutes.

Tooting didn't know what hit them. After nine minutes a through ball found Garner, who timed his run to perfection, beating the offside trap and having a clear run at goal. Dave King came off his line, but Garner nonchalantly slotted the ball past him to give Hendon the lead.

Eight minutes later, the lead was doubled and it was the same player who was on target. This time, however, Garner had to show some fine skill in getting around Allan McLeod before creating the angle for his shot. It was straight and true and King was again well beaten.

The first two goals were both excellently taken, but they were outdone by number three, which came after half an hour. A free-kick on the left side was headed out by a defender, the ball bouncing out to James Bent, some 25 yards from goal.

Bent had time to control the ball before striking a drive that flew into the net past King, who was unsighted, but would have done well to make a save. A minute later, the former Hendon favourite did produce an excellent save to deny Guentchev a goal.

Tooting's best effort of the half came in the 40th minute, when an angled drive from Joe Vines needed only a touch from one of three players rushing towards the six-yard box, but none could make contact and the ball went out for a goal kick.

For the second half, Tooting replaced Marshall with Craig Pitterson, but they were already facing a mountain to climb to get back into the game. What they didn't need was an offside decision going against them early in the half.

But in the 52nd minute, a through ball from Guentchev found Garner, who seemed to be a good stride in front of the last defender. Garner didn't wait for the whistle. Instead, he deftly danced around King, steadied himself, and rolled the ball into unguarded goal.

As he was celebrating his maiden Hendon Senior hat-trick, Aaron Goode was complaining long and loud to the referee, who was very lenient in not showing him a card.

Five minutes later, Hendon made a double switch, taking off Garner and Dean, and replacing them with Hunt and Busby. Tooting also made two changes, replacing Colin Hartburn with Dean Hamlin and Matt York with Jason Pinnock.

The Terrors realised that their hold on the London Senior Cup - which they had won beating Hendon last season - was loosening by the minute. They certainly looked more dangerous in the final half-hour, but that probably was as much to do with Hendon taking their feet off the pedal.

Two or three bits of defending by Hendon in the final half-hour were sloppy, but Tooting couldn't capitalise, their wayward shooting sparing the blushes of a couple of defenders. A drive from Paul Vines came off the Hendon crossbar, but William Viner really wasn't that busy.

With 20 minutes to go, Sam Collins, who has been a revelation in the past few weeks, was given a breather and Leach came on in his place. Collins, Kevin Maclaren and Craig Vargas were the only three of the 15 outfield players to start all four matches in the previous eight days and he deserved the rest.

The substitution saw Leach drop into the centre of defence and it allowed Maclaren to return to his midfield role, where he has been so good during Hendon's recent good run.

Although Tooting had a number of chances, which they didn't take, it was certainly not one-way traffic. At the other end, Guentchev again went close with a shot as did Haule, who looked back to something near his best. And King made another superb save to keep out a drive from Busby.

"For 60 minutes, I thought we were almost unplayable," said a delighted Hendon manager Gary McCann. "Our running and our passing was superb and we overpowered them."