Hendon kept up their perfect home record with a 1-0 defeat of Grays Athletic at Claremont Road on Tuesday, thanks to a rasping drive from Martin Randall. The win lifted Hendon up to 8th in the Ryman League Premier Division, but Grays, many people's dark horses for the title, remain in the bottom 6.

Kieran Gallagher came into the team at the expense of Leon Woodruffe, while on-loan signing midfielder Robert Hollingdale, from Woking, took the injured Steve Forbes' place, alongside the industrious Jon-Barrie Bates. Rob Haworth came in for Warren Kelly on the subs bench.

Grays' position is a false one, at least on the reputation of the players they can put out on the pitch. They parted company with their manager Craig Edwards last week with midfielder Paul Stimson taking over, and prompty won their first game at the weekend.

Confident from that victory, they started brightly, but the Hendon defence held firm. Their best chance came on the counter-attack and when Gary Abbott helped on a cross to Adam Miller, it seemed odds-on that he would score. However, he dallied on the ball and David Hook was out quickly enough to force the shot wide.

Hendon should then have taken the lead in the 41st minute. It was started by an excellent run down the left wing from Ricci Crace. He beat a couple of defenders before sending a low cross into Paul Yates. He controlled the ball, rode a challenge and passed to the unmarked Randall. Melvin Capleton came off his line a yard, but expected the worst. Randall, instead of trying to place his shot, went for power and went half a yard wide.

In the 53rd minute, Hendon suffered a blow when Mark Cooper went off. But fair play to manager Dave Anderson. Instead of bringing on defender Pat Sappleton in a straight swap, he sent on striker Haworth and the move paid dividents inside 2 minutes.

A corner from Yates was not properly cleared and when he crossed a second time. Haworth got the knock-down. It fell to Steve Butler, who laid the ball into the path of Randall who smashed a rising drive directly over Capleton into the roof of the net. The keeper really didn't stand a chance because of the power of the shot.

With the ever dangerous Abbott already off - he was substituted by the almost equally prolific Robbie Reinelt - Grays didn't change their style and tried to stretch Hendon out wide. Tony Lock and Miller met their matches, however, in Paul Yates, Paul Towler and Jamie Burgess, who were outstanding at full-back, with Yates taking Towler's right-side place when he moved into centre half.

It was only in the last 10 minutes that they exerted major pressure on the Hendon goal, but the Greens' defence was again magnificent. Although the ball seemed to be almost permanently in the possession of Grays players, when it came into the penalty area, there was always a Hendon player in the way. Hook, although the busier goalkeeper, was rarely stretched into making saves.

"I have tried to stress the importance of not taking the previous games' highs or lows into the present one," said Mr Anderson, "and tonight there was only a positive reaction to the poor show at Hampton on Saturday. We battled hard and I am delighted with the win tonight."