Hendon made it four wins out of four with a demolition of a Tooting & Mitcham United team whose miserable relegation season will end after one more match. For the Greens, results elsewhere meant that even reaching 72 points for the season might not be enough even for a top-six finish, let along a playoff place won by the top five.

As matches go, this was a huge disappointment, mainly because Tooting, featuring more than half a dozen teenagers in their starting line-up, simply couldn't cope with Hendon's fluid, passing game. And having raced into a two-goal lead inside 15 minutes, the Greens coasted home.

There were four changes from the XI who started in the London Senior Cup, Ryan Wharton, Carl McCluskey, Elliott Godfrey and Isaiah Rankin, coming in for Jerome Federico, Michael Peacock, Dave Diedhiou and Jack Mazzone, all of whom were on the bench with Greg Ngoyi.

From the kick-off, it was clear that Tooting were out of their depth and their nervous passing gifted the ball back to Hendon on many occasions. And once Hendon started passing the ball, the Terrors were left chasing the ball and shadows.

In the 10th minute, Rankin led an attack down the left side. Elliott Cox, who had been with Hendon earlier this season, could not slow him down and, when the ball was played into the penalty area, the heart of the back four failed to clear it. Scott Shulton was perfectly placed to slam a shot into the corner.

Three minutes later, he had a second goal. Again Rankin was the provider, and he really should have scored himself. However, after Kieran Campbell had parried his effort, when Jordan Binns attempted to clear the ball, he drove the ball off Shulton and it bounced into the net.

In the 17th minute, it was nearly 3-0 when a Darren Currie corner was cleared off the line by Kiemon Robinson as it bent towards the far post. In the ensuing scramble, two Hendon players had the chance to get a decisive touch, but both failed.

Five minutes after that, Rankin was penalised for colliding with Campbell as the keeper backpedalled into him trying to reach a cross from Scott Cousins. James Parker managed to hit the post as the whistle blew, saving him from the embarrassment of a miss from two yards out.

The rest of the first half was a huge disappointment. Tooting lost their most experienced defender, Dominic Sterling, with a knee injury after 28 minutes, Ryan James coming on in his place. And their first effort was a shot from skipper Lee Hall, after 32 minutes, but it went over the crossbar.

Hendon, meanwhile, were too comfortable - goalkeeper Berkley Laurencin, defenders Parker, Wharton, James Fisher and Cousins were practically unemployed - and the whole team was simply not challenged enough to be motivated to raise their game. As a result they put together 20- and 30-pass moves that went nowhere.

When the half-time whistle went, Hendon fans were almost equally satisfied and frustrated. Their team's 2-0 lead looked to be more than enough, but there had been very little of the exciting attacking play that might have brought more reward.

The second half continued in the same vein as the end of the first half, but Hendon were continually frustrated by poor decisions by their players. Eventually, however, midway through the second period, the Tooting defence cracked.

It was Rankin who again proved their undoing. He cut inside Robinson and went into the penalty area, where his run was halted by James's mistimed challenge and a penalty was awarded.

Rankin offered Shulton the chance to complete his hat-trick but he demurred. As he ran up to the ball, a gust of wind blew it off the spot, so he had to replace it, obviously breaking his concentration. That may explain why his effort wasn't hit with complete conviction.

Campbell guessed correctly and pushed the ball against the post. The rebound, however, favoured Rankin, who controlled the bouncing ball and struck it into the net.

Almost immediately Federico and Mazzone replaced Casey Maclaren and Shulton, respectively. Mazzone's first contribution was to commit a foul that earned him a very harsh caution.

In the 72nd minute, almost out of nothing, Charlie Stimson fired a shot from 25 yards that was dipping towards the top corner of the Hendon goal. Berkley Laurencin, however, was equal to it and he produced and outstanding save to just about preserve his 18th - and Hendon's 23rd - clean sheet of the season.

Ngoyi replaced Rankin for the final eight minutes and it didn't take him long to make an impact. With a minute of normal time remaining, Federico delivered a teasing cross which Campbell tried to reach, but Ngoyi beat him to the ball and headed it into the net.

A minute into stoppage time, the rout was completed when Carl McCluskey shot home after the Tooting defence had failed to clear the ball.

"Job done," said manager Gary McCann. "I am glad we won, but we looked a little bit jaded after the effort on Wednesday.

"It is hard to criticise a team a team that wins 5-0, but we really weren't at our best today. When we went 2-0 up, we dropped into first gear from second gear and stayed there for the rest of the first half."