Hendon's much-changed team held their nerve to fight back from goal down and then were perfect in the penalty shoot-out as they overcame Uxbridge at Vale Farm to reach the quarter-finals of the Middlesex Senior Cup on Tuesday night. The Greens will be at home to the winners of the Hanworth Villa v Hillingdon Borough tie in February.

There were seven changes to the starting line-up from the one which kicked-off against Aveley three days earlier, with only Berkley Laurencin, Michael Peacock, Kevin Maclaren and Jerome Federico retaining their places. This meant that there was good news in the return from injury for James Archer, James Fisher, Jamie Busby, Elliott Charles and Greg Ngoyi, while work experience teenager Mustafa Mirzai made his debut and James Parker came back after work commitments had caused his absence on Saturday.

Uxbridge, with an FA Trophy tie against Wealdstone on Saturday, also rested a few players. Their manager, Tony Choules, who had been in charge of Hendon early in the 2004-05 season, was pleased with the way that his youngsters performed, though the reality was that they struggled even more than Hendon to put efforts on target.

A bitterly cold evening and difficult surface meant the game didn't flow. Nevertheless, although decidedly lacking in match sharpness, Hendon's speed of thought was still too much for the young Uxbridge team and some of their challenges, especially in the first 10 minutes, probably merited cautions.

The referee, however, unwilling to make a possible rod for his own back by flashing cards too frequently, limited himself to severe verbal warnings. And, it must be said, his placatory demands were, on the whole, met.

Midway through the first half, a powerful 25-yard drive from Kevin Maclaren was pushed aside for a corner by Matthew Elston-Bull, the ball dropping just a couple of feet wide of the near post. From the resulting set piece, Peacock won a clean header, but his effort looped just over the crossbar.

The closest Hendon came to breaking the deadlock in the first half came from Charles, whose running caused problems for the visiting defence, but a stray boot normally did enough to repel the danger. In the 31st minute, however, no one closed down Charles, whose shot beat Elston-Bull, but cannoned off a post and the rebound went just in front of Ngoyi, who slipped as he tried to change direction to knock the ball into the almost unguarded net.

Seven minutes into the second half, Uxbridge made what proved to be their only substitution of the night, sending on dead-ball specialist Michael Murray and withdrawing Andrew Capewell.

Another dangerous run from Charles, 11 minutes into the second half, again nearly brought him a goal. This time Elston-Bull did exceptionally well to shift his weight and save a shot that was flying towards towards the just inside his near post.

Three minutes later, Busby struck a powerful drive wide of the target. If he had been fully match fit, the feeling was that Busby would at least have forced the goalkeeper to make a save. Late in the game, Busby was just wide with an audacious scissors kick, the ball going just the wrong side of the far post.

With 25 minutes remaining, in a clearly planned move, both Charles and Ngoyi were replaced, Dave Diedhiou and Michael Lewis coming on. For Lewis it was his first action since early October and he had played only 40 minutes of competitive football since April.

Uxbridge had failed to put a single effort on target until the 80th minute, when they put the ball into the Hendon net. However, the assistant referee spotted that substitute Michael Murray's brilliant cross had been turned over the line by Max Howell’s hand, so he received a caution from the referee instead of congratulations from teammates.

The last of the Hendon changes came with seven minutes of normal time remaining, Junior Lewis coming on for Fisher. It was another tactical change, a rare luxury for the Greens. And the elder Lewis almost sealed the tie in normal time, but a desperate lunge from Mohamed Hashi dispossessed him after he had ridden two attempted tackles.

Without a natural striker, Hendon relied on the two Lewises and Federico for their attacking options, but the balls to them were lacking in accuracy or, as was all to often the case, struck with too much pace for the players to reach.

In the first period of extra time, Uxbridge enjoyed their first period of real domination and they made it pay. In the 101st minute, Hendon needlessly conceded a corner, which was curled in by Murray. Laurencin and Parker rather got in each others' way as the ball came in and Tom Willment headed it into the unguarded net.

Hendon showed excellent spirit in coming back in the second period of extra time, taking control of the game. With 11 minutes remaining, Michael Lewis fed his player-coach with an astute through ball, Elston-Bull came off his line, but was not quick enough to deny Junior Lewis, whose left foot strike went just inside the near post.

It was his first goal for Hendon this century (his last one came on 27 April 1999) and it was enough to send the match into a penalty shoot-out, the seventh of Gary McCann's reign as manager.

Busby took the first kick and although Elston-Bull got a hand to the ball, he could not keep it out. Howell had the ball in the net again with his effort, straight down the middle past Laurencin's dive.

Michael Lewis took the next Hendon kick and he confidently despatched it. James Duncan beat Laurencin with his attempt, but the ball bounced away off the goalkeeper's right post to give Hendon the advantage.

It became 3-1 when Mirzai, showing the nervelessness of youth kept up Hendon's perfect record. Hussein Warsame then converted his kick to reduce the arrears.

Another Hendon youngster took responsibility for the fourth Hendon attempt and Federico was as accurate as his three predecessors, meaning Uxbridge had to convert their final two attempts, and hope the fifth Hendon kick failed, to force sudden death.

Howard Hall drilled the ball past Laurencin, but he watched in horror as it struck the top of the crossbar and bounced away to safety.

McCann said, "The best news tonight is that there were no injuries. We were always going to be rusty with so many of the players coming back from long injuries and I think it showed.

"But we got the win and, in a cup tie, winning is what really matters."