Hendon enjoyed a relatively comfortable ride as they beat Ford United 3-1 at Claremont Road on Saturday afternoon. It was the perfect response after the disappointment of the defeat at Purfleet in midweek.

The starting 11 was unchanged, with only Pat Sappleton coming onto the subs' bench at the expense of Warren Kelly. There were two former Hendon players in the Motormen's line-up, midfielder Paul Adolphe, who played at Claremont Road in 2000-01 and defender Garry Kimble, who played under Peter Taylor in 1993.

The opening goal arrived in the 9th minute and it was a fine team effort. Ricci Crace latched onto the ball near the touchline in midfield and quickly passed to Martin Randall. Randall fed the ball out to Paul Towler, who did well to pass to Paul Yates as he was being fouled by Leli Bejada.

Yates spotted Crace making a diagonal run and lifted an inch-perfect pass into the striker's path. As Billy McMahon came off his line, CRACE looked up and rifled a shot past the goalkeeper , off the inside of the post and into the net. Having failed to score in 5 appearances, his relief at breaking his season's duck was clear for all too see.

Two minutes later, Hendon should have doubled their lead as Crace attacked down the right wing, cut inside Kimble and had both Randall and Dale Binns almost unmarked in front of goal. Crace's pass to Randall was a little overstruck but, more importantly, half a yard behind where Randall wanted it and he couldn't get good contact on the ball, knocking his shot a yard wide of the post.

In the 21st minute, Yates swung in a corner that almost caught out McMahon. The goalkeeper just managed to tip the ball off the crossbar and out for another corner. This next corner, taken by Binns from the other wing, was hacked clear as it almost crept inside the near post.

The half ended with Ford enjoyed a good spell of possession and a succession of free-kicks around the Hendon penalty area, but Towler, Jamie Burgess, Mark Cooper and Steve Butler had by far the better of the exchanges against the Ford front too, Chris Rose and Bejada.

Bejada himself booked for a nasty foul on Towler, who had done well to hold off one robust challenge as they contested the ball just inside the Hendon half. Tempers flared as Towler lay injured by the Hendon dug-out, but commonsense prevailed and everybody calmed down.

Just before half-time Hendon put themselves in the comfort zone with a second goal. Crace was the provider this time. He spotted Steve Forbes breaking from midfield sent a great pass into his path.

Forbes had too much strength for Warren Hackett and he was able to run in on goal. Although his first touch was not too good, FORBES' second was excellent and the ball flew past McMahon on its way into the net.

Five minutes after half-time Hendon were denied a penalty. Binns did well to get around the back of Ben Wood and he spotted Crace making a run towards the far post. The cross was almost perfect, but the ball didn't quite reach Crace because Kimble tipped it away.

Referee Mr R James (Milton Keynes), badly positioned and screened from the action, immediately pointed to the corner flag. His assistant, spotted Kimble's "save" and immediately flagged for a penalty. Mr James overruled him and pointed again to the corner flag.

The assistant would have none of it, however, and continued to flag. Mr James then went over, spoke briefly to him and confirmed his original decision of a corner. He was immediately surrounded by 4 irate Hendon players and he called them over to him before allowing play to continue.

It transpired that Mr James believed Kimble's action was accidental, forgetting that Kimble's handball gave his team an unfair advantage, and that alone should have resulted in a penalty. Yates' corner came to nothing.

In the 63rd minute, Randall and Binns were withdrawn and Rob Haworth and Kieran Gallagher came on, the latter on the left side, where he looked less effective than on the other flank. Haworth caused Ford all sorts of problems. They had made their 3 changes, taking off Adolphe, Wood and Kevin Hoddy and replacing them with Andy Aransibia, Bradley Woodards and Ashley Marsh.

At 2-0, although comfortable, Hendon really wanted a third to insure against a late goal giving them an awkward final few minutes. In the 78th minute, it nearly arrived, but Jon-Barrie Bates powerful drive was hacked off the line by John O' Sullivan.

Hendon fans' nightmare scenario surfaced in the 87th minute, when Bates and Burgess had a misunderstanding attempting to clear a ball and it fell to Aransibia. His low spinning cross, was deflected into his own net by COOPER to set up a nervous 3 minutes.

It didn't turn out that way. Two minutes later, a long ball out of defence found Crace running at the tiring defence. CRACE was quicker than Hackett and he slipped the ball past McMahon to seal the victory.

"The goals were high quality," admitted manager Dave Anderson, "althoughwe played in fits and starts. Ricci Crace's goals are bit like the No. 92 bus. You wait ages for one and then two come at once."

On the subject of the non-award of the penalty, he said, "Refereeing is a difficult job in football, but you've got to take help if it is offered."