at Chertsey Town on Saturday afternoon. The important part of games such as these is the opening half, before the shape is altered by a flood of substitutions. In this case, Hendon won the meaningful part 1-0, and didn't allow Chertsey a single shot at goal.

Not that Hendon had bombarded Paul Seuke with shots from all angles. The Curfews' goalkeeper did produce a magnificent save to deny Micky Woolner from 35 yards after 11 minutes, but most of the time Chertsey's defence kept out Martin Randall and Rob Haworth in the middle and Leon Woodruffe and Kieran Gallagher out wide, even if they weren't quite sure how they managed it.

In the 26th minute, a free-kick from Gallagher bent inches wide of Seuke's right upright with the goalkeeper a spectator. He then palmed a cross into his own net, but the goal was disallowed as the referee judged that he had been fouled.

In the 43rd minute, a turn and shot from Randall was pushed aside for a corner. Gallagher curled the ball into the penalty area, Pat Sappleton lost his marker and side-footed the ball into the net from 8 yards. A minute later, Randall again wormed his way into the penalty area and appeared to be pulled down, although another angle suggested he had committed the first offence. Randall and Lee Taylor squared up to each other and were forcibly substituted. The game restarted with a free-kick to Chertsey.

At half-time, Hendon made 7 changes, David Hook, Woolner, Paul Yates, Steve Forbes, Randall, Haworth and Woodruffe making way for Dan Burton, James Burgess, Jon-Barrie Bates, Christian Metcalfe, Dale Binns, Ricky Crace and Eugene Ofori. Chertsey made 2 alterations to their line-up.

Seven minutes into the period, Hendon doubled their lead. Another corner from Gallagher caused problems for Seuke, who was unchallenged as he dropped the ball. It fell at the feet of Ofori, who had no defender near him, and he rolled the ball into the net.

In the 62nd minute, Crace was realeased by a fine pass from Bates and ran past the last defender before taking the ball around Seuke. The angle proved too much for him as he stroked a shot off the outside of the near post.

After Grant Hamilton had replaced Sappleton, Chertsey began to get back into the game - although this was not necessarily a case of cause and effect. Four minutes later, Burton was slow off his line to deal with a cross from Neil Breslin and Mark Lewis lobbed the ball into the empty net.

In the 81st minute, Crace worked himself another opening, but this time effort was well save by Seuke. It kept Chertsey in the game and they almost snatched a share of the spoils in stoppage time when Abby Nsubuea took the ball around Burton but he, like Crace earlier, found the angle too tight and the chance went begging.

"It was a good workout," admitted manager Dave Anderson. "The result was irrelevant, but it was good that we scored off our set-pieces. Kieran Gallagher's deliveries are starting to show what he is all about."