Hendon produced easily their worst 45 minutes of the season as they were crushed by a Harrow Borough team which entered the game on a six-match losing run. Three second half goals from Harrow ruined what had been a tenacious first-half performance from the Greens.

There was only one change from the 16 which was named against Bury Town on Saturday, Belal Aite-Ouakrim replacing Michael Peacock on the bench. The good news is that both Maclaren brothers, Casey and Kevin, are hopeful of being in contention for places at the weekend and other injured players, Carl McCluskey, Jamie Busby, Isaiah Rankin and Lee O’Leary are all getting closer to returns to first-team duty.

The Greens made a calamitous start against a Borough team lacking in confidence. After three minutes, Berkley Laurencin came out to the edge of his penalty area to shepherd a ball away for a goal kick. He was, however, beaten to the ball by Evandro Delgado, whose quick cross to the far post was knocked into the net by Danny Bucklet.

Despite the setback of the early goal, Hendon were determined to play their neat passing football and soon had Harrow on the back foot. Former Hendon goalkeeper Will Viner did well to smother a shot from Elliott Godfrey, but an offside flag from the assistant referee meant his effort was not needed.

A rare run into a shooting position from Scott Cousins gave the Hendon skipper the chance to open his account for the season. His drive narrowly missed the far post with Viner there was no late swing on the shot bringing it inside the far post.

Dave Diedhiou, playing in a wide position worked well with Godfrey and James Parker to create a chance for Greg Ngoyi, but the striker couldn't get enough power on his shot to make Viner work too hard. From the other flank, a cross by Frank Sinclair was just too strong for Elliott Charles to reach.

The equaliser duly arrived midway through the half. A short corner from Darren Currie was shot goalwards by James Fisher, but the ball ricocheted to Currie.

His second cross was flicked by a Harrow defender and Godfrey was first to react. Although Delgado was just behind Godfrey, just beyond the edge of the penalty area, the Borough midfielder decided to step upfield, so Godfrey turned the other way and had time and space to deliver another cross.

This time, Charles did enough to stop Viner catching or punching the ball. When it dropped to the feet of Ngoyi, he was able to turn and roll the ball into the bottom corner, beyond the diving Viner's reach.

From Hendon's next spell of concerted pressure, the ball came to Ryan Wharton on the edge of the penalty area, but his speculative shot was some distance off target. Borough, however, were rocking and a second Hendon goal seemed increasingly likely.

It came in first half stoppage time, when Charles controlled the ball on the angle of the 18-yard-box. He jinked one way, then the other to make space, then ran across the edge of the penalty area till he was in front of goal. Charles' shot wasn't particularly powerful, but it was perfectly placed because Viner, unsighted when the ball was struck, could not get down to save the ball before it rolled just inside his left post.

Before the second-half kicked-off, Michael Barima replaced Wilson Gondwe and, two minutes into the period, Marcus Rose limped off, with Lee Wootton coming on for him. It meant a reshuffle in the Borough ranks with Danny Leech dropping back into the centre of defence.

But his defensive duties were not required because Hendon barely raised an attack of note in the whole of the 45 minutes. It was a stunning turnaround because suddenly it was Harrow who were on the front foot and Hendon could barely string two passes together.

For 20 minutes, Harrow piled on the pressure, but didn't do much with the ball. In fact, they failed to put a single effort on target. Hendon, however, couldn’t cope with pressure and failed to find either Charles or Ngoyi, who were left isolated up front, so the ball came back into the Greens' danger area time after time.

Eventually, the pressure told. A cross from the right wing was delivered to the far post, Bucklet lost his marker and, with Laurencin badly positioned, he was able to nod the ball into the almost unguarded net pretty much as he pleased.

Before play could resume, Ngoyi was replaced by Michael Lewis and he was to have Hendon's best chance of the second half. He ran into a good position, but his right-foot shot was very tame and was easily saved by Viner by his near post.

When Viner failed to get distance on an under-pressure clearance the ball was returned by a Hendon player, but he failed to hit the target from 30 yards.

In the 77th minute, a bad foul by Wayne Walters resulted in the Harrow captain receiving a yellow card, but Godfrey had to be helped off ‑ punishing Hendon more than Harrow because they lost their free-kick specialist for that very type of dead ball.

The free-kick came to nothing and, a couple of minutes later, Godfrey was replaced by Aite-Ouakrim. The substitute did have one of his trademark runs, but he was well-marshalled by Walters and was not able to get off a shot.

With three minutes of normal time remaining, Harrow got the reward their enterprise deserved. Another ball into the Hendon penalty area was not dealt with and Walters headed the ball home.

As the game moved into added time, both teams made their last changes, Wharton being replaced by Jerome Federico for Hendon and Buckle making way for Harrow's third substitute, Josh Thomas.

Searching for the equaliser, Hendon left too many players in advanced positions and, on the break, Barima completed the scoring with a low shot.

The shell-shocked Hendon players looked a little relieved that their embarrassment was brought to an end by the final whistle barely a minute later. In reality, Borough looked likely to add to their tally every time they brought the ball forward.

"That was a second half from Hell," raged furious Hendon manager Gary McCann. "We were absolutely shocking in the second half."