Hendon overcame Hampton & Richmond Borough 2-0 at Claremont Road on Tuesday night to book their place in the Middlesex Senior Cup Final for the second consecutive year and 3rd time in 5 seasons. Enfield Town will provide the opposition at Northwood FC on Easter Monday evening, 21 April, kick-off 7.30 pm.

Injury-hit Hendon were still missing 6 players, so the starting 11 just about picked itself and the only change was Sam Byfield replacing Patou Wemboloua on the bench.

The game could not be described as a classic cup-tie, but the result was more important than the performance. After picking up just 3 points in 5 home Ryman League games, including a 3-3 draw with the Beavers, Hendon were just grateful to win at home inside 90 minutes.

Hampton offered very little in attack and they struggled to cope with the high bouncing ball on a bobbly pitch with a stiff breeze swirling around. In Hendon's defence, with significant rain forecast for Monday and Tuesday watering was not considered and the rain never materialised.

The most dangerous player on the pitch was Dale Binns, who enjoyed himself against overmatched Stewart Harte. He delivered a series of teasing crosses that either just eluded Rob Haworth and Ricci Crace or were bundled clear by Hampton defenders.

In the 19th minute, Hampton's frailty was cruelly exposed. A long throw from Lee Harvey was headed across the face of his own goal by Alan Inns and the ball landed at the feet of an unmarked BINNS, who had time to control it before smacking a shot via the hands of Andy Iga into the net.

Five minutes later, Paul Towler danced his way through three tackles but, having got a clear sight of goal, underhit the shot and Iga pushed the ball away for a corner. A diving Hampton defender threw himself in front of a shot from Paul Yates as Hendon looked to extend their lead.

Crace was next to force an opening. In the 35th minute, he did very well to get past a combination of Sam Okafor and Alan Inns and then knocked the ball away from the advancing Iga. Although both Haworth and Yates were arriving in the penalty area, neither would have been easy to find, so Crace tried to score, and Iga made a simple catch.

The only Hampton effort came in the 39th minute when a speculative effort from Richard O'Connor curled over David Hook, but it bounced some distance behind the Hendon goal.

On the stroke of half-time, Crace's persistence brought reward for Hendon. A seemingly aimless pass looked to be going out for a Hampton goal kick. Darren Deegan tried to shepherd the ball out of play, but Crace got to it and laid a pass into the path of Jon-Barrie BATES, who struck a firm shot past Iga.

The second half was turgid. Hendon were comfortable in the lead and Hampton appeared to meekly accept their fate. Mark Cooper and Harvey were rarely extended and both Iain Duncan and Rob Hollingdale were able to maraud forward down the flanks.

Most of the good chances went Hendon's way, but none were taken, the worst miss being a header from Haworth that flew over the crossbar. However, Hendon's nerves were really stretched due to Hampton's passivity.

In the last few minutes, Sean Gorman limped off the pitch and although the Beavers still nominally had 4 substitutes available, they elected to finish with 10 men as two were unfit, and the other two failed to arrive at the ground.

"This will feel better tomorrow than it does now," said manager Dave Anderson, who celebrated his 41st birthday that night. "It wasn't a great game and as our home from hasn't been very good recently, a win was the important thing. We still need to lift our standards at home.

"Of course I am delighted that we won and we are back in the County Cup Final. We are the holders and we really want to retain it, so I changed our formation to a more attacking one."