Hendon produced an excellent performance to beat Basingstoke Town in a top-of-the-table clash at the Camrose Ground on Saturday afternoon. The result lifts Hendon up one place to 4th in the Ryman League Premier Division and Basingstoke down one to 7th.

The team was almost at full strength, with only Steve Forbes (injured) and James Burgess (suspended) absent. Paul Towler partnered skipper Jon-Barrie Bates in midfield and the pair ran the game for almost all of the 90 minutes. But the real star of the show - from a positive football point of view - was Eugene Ofori, whose partnership with Martin Randall in attack gives defences fits.

In the opening half-hour, only one man took centre stage and, unfortunately, it was the referee, Mr C Rolfe. In the 13th minute, Basingstoke goalkeeper Scott Tarr took an age over a goal-kick and Mr Rolfe blew his whistle to urge the kick to be taken.

A minute later, Max Rooke vainly tried to reach a crossfield ball from Neville Roach but it skidded high off the slick surface and came off his hand. David Hook lined up the free-kick but waited for a Basingstoke player to do up his laces just in front of him. Amazingly, the goalkeeper was shown a yellow card, presumably for time-wasting, without receiving the same warning as Tarr had been given a minute earlier.

Iain Duncan made an observation to the assistant referee and he, too, was shown a yellow card. It is hard to see how a team can be judged to be time-wasting inside the opening 15 minutes, with the game still goalless. In addition, there was very obvious inconsistency between the treatment of Tarr and Hook within one minute.

When it came to awarding free-kicks or making borderline decisions, Mr Rolfe was at least consistent for the full 90 minutes. The team kicking towards the clubhouse was to get the benefit of any doubt, even when it was 60-40 in the other team's favour. Randall, in the first half, and Ian Dickens, near the full-time whistle, commented on a ludicrous decision were cautioned for dissent.

Back to the football - of which there had been very little thanks to the incessant whistling from Mr Rooke - in the 27th minute, a mazy run from Roach took him past Micky Woolner and Mark Cooper before he fired a shot across Hook. Nobody could get a touch on the ball as it flew past the far post and away to safety.

Almost of all Hendon's best openings came on the counter-attack. The darting runs of Ofori caused the Basingstoke defence all kinds of problems and they were grateful to the assistant referee, who halted Ofori with four offside decisions, at least one of which was borderline at best.

It all came right for Hendon in the 36th minute. A long ball out of defence by Woolner invited Ofori to prove his pace against Steve Hemmings. The centre-half was neither quick nor strong enough to hold off OFORI, who sprinted clear and, as Tarr came off his line, he slipped the ball under the goalkeeper and into the net.

Play restarted with Ofori, Kieran Gallagher and Randall still in Basingstoke's half. Given the unorthodox decisions already made by Mr Rolfe, it was a relief to Hendon fans that the trio weren't cautioned for time-wasting, especially as Randall would have been dismissed!

At half-time there was a most unsavoury incident behind Tarr's goal. Hendon fans had been goading the goalkeeper, who reacted immediately after Ofori's goal. As all the players walked towards the dressing room, Tarr went to collect his towel wrapped around the goal net. The abuse from both parties got even more heated and the goalkeeper reacted by spraying some of the fans with his water bottle. Mr Rolfe failed to notice anything until the goalkeeper trotted off the pitch.

Before the second half started, Tarr came round to the Hendon fans behind the goal and apologised, something he repeated on the final whistle. "I don't normally lose my rag," he admitted after the game. "Normally, I love the banter, but today I reacted and I shouldn't have. At least it will give something for Hendon fans to write about on their website!"

Whatever Basingstoke manager Ernie Howe said to his team in the dressing room, it would not have been to do something stupid in their penalty area. However, in the 48th minute, Gallagher curled in a free kick, Steve Butler charged at the ball and a panicking HEMMINGS sliced the ball past Tarr for a comical own goal.

It completely knocked the stuffing out of Basingstoke. Paul Yates, Randall and Cooper all failed to hit the target with presentable chances and Ricci Crace, who replaced Gallagher for the final 15 minutes, came close to adding to Hendon's lead.

The only shot on target from Basingstoke in the second half came from substitute David Ray in the 85th minute and the only inconvience to Hook was a slightly awkward bounce.

"This was a very good performance against a top 6 team," said delighted manager Dave Anderson. The goal early in the second half certainly settled us down, but what pleased me most was that today we showed maturity when we were in front."