Hendon continue to stutter in their preparations for the 2011-12 season, but they were still far too good for Harefield United in the preseason friendly at Preston Park on Saturday afternoon.

No less than seven triallists were on show, including striker Claude Seanla, formerly of Horsham, Tonbridge Angels and Concord Rangers, and Michael Lewis, who had played well against the Greens in the midweek draw at Chalfont St Peter.

It took Hendon just three minutes to take the lead. A long ball out of defence, invited Isiah Rankin to run onto it and he was too strong for the already struggling Tom White.

Getting in front of White - who left the match with a groin injury after only 13 minutes - Rankin was faced by Andrew Hagger, who was quickly off his line. But the goalkeeper was left in no-man's land as Rankin deftly lobbed the ball over him and into the unguarded net.

The second Hendon goal came after 21 minutes and although Casey Maclaren get the credit, a good header from Seanla and a horrible gaffe from Hagger were mainly responsible. The striker's header should have been saved easily by the goalkeeper, but he let ball roll under his body.

Although Hagger did drag the ball back he had little or no control of it and Maclaren, sliding in, nudged the ball over the line from maybe two inches away from the target - certainly part of the ball was still on the line when the Hendon man made contact with it. None of the Harefield players even looked at the referee or his assistant for a foul.

Aaron Flood had a good chance to reduce the arrears after 24 minutes, but he completed a four-timer: he lifted the ball over Noel Imber, the crossbar, the safety net behind the goal and the trees behind them. Given that he was only a few yards from goal, it was a spectacular miss and he left the game a few minutes later.

His strike partner Dan O'Connor was a willing runner and he gave James Parker and Michael Peacock more than a few problems with his pace. Unfortunately for him, and the Hares, there was no end product to his endeavour.

At the other end, Jamie Busby was denied twice by Hagger, once with a very good save, although the other one was more routine. It should be noted that after Hagger's earlier mishandling Maclaren and Seanla or Rankin were sniffing for the chance of a rebound.

All in all, however, for all of Hendon's pressure and copies amounts of possession, they didn't do enough with it. Two or three other half-chances were created, but the wrong option was taken with either weak shots or passes that went astray.

A perfect example of this came in the 38th minute when Parker arrived late for a corner, and guided his header into the one space where Harefield defenders were and Hendon attackers weren’t.

The second half was even scrappier than the first, not helped by 15 substitutions by the two teams. For Hendon, only Parker, James Fisher and Bradley Fraser played the full 90 minutes; for Harefield it was Hagger, Wayne Mills, Lee Benning and O’Connor.

At half-time, Liam Hind and Seanla were withdrawn, Danny Dyer and Lawrence Yaku, respectively, replacing them.

Hendon’s third and final goal came just five minutes after the resumption, against Rankin timing his run well to meet a ball down the middle. This time, he kept the ball on the ground and rolled it past the advancing Hagger.

Three minutes later, he tried to complete his hat-trick, but he managed, instead of deflecting Maclaren's goalbound header into the net, away from the target.

Imber's first save of note came in the 58th minute, when he pushed a low shot from O'Connor around the post.

Bradley Ambrose joined James Archer and Berkley Laurencin as substitutes in the 63rd minute (Rankin, Maclaren and Imber were the men to go off - Harefield also made a triple substitution at the same time) and the first-named really should have scored a hat-trick in his 26 minutes of action.

His worst miss came from a period of pressure and half-chances for both Busby and Yaku. When Hagger did well to block the latter's shot, Ambrose had an almost open goal to aim at, but he blasted the ball high and wide of the target.

Greg Ngoyi and James Burgess then came on for Michaels Lewis and Peacock and Ngoyi was denied by a brave save by Hagger, who was by far the busier of the two goalkeepers.

That said, another of the Harefield subs, Sam Gomez nearly pulled a goal back when he was given a clear sight of the Hendon goal. Laurencin, however, was quickly off his line and he was able to smother the ball.

Hendon's last change saw Junior Lewis take over from Busby, and his coaching on the field was evident almost from the time he took his first touch.

As for the game, it petered out with neither team entirely satisfied with their afternoon's work.

Hendon boss Gary McCann was forthright in his thoughts on the team's performance. He said, "I wasn't very impressed. We two goals up very early on and instead of pushing on and playing some good football, we tried to be too clever. There was too much World Cup Willie about us. I told the players as much in the dressing at half-time and after the game

"The players who did best today were those who weren't involved, though the one bright spot was the performance of Michael Lewis. He looked very lively."