Hendon were far from impressive before finally seeing off Maldon & Tiptree at a sunny Park Drive on Saturday. The Greens go in the draw for the fourth qualifying round of the FA Cup with Budweiser for the third consecutive season and will be looking to emulate last season's appearance in the first round proper.

The starting 11 was exactly the same that had started at Hastings, while Isaiah Rankin was a welcome returnee on the seven-man bench. Elliott Godfrey, who had dropped out during the warm-up the previous weekend, passed a fitness test and also was among the substitutes.

For more than half an hour there was almost nothing of note at either end. Maldon & Tiptree, with Sos Yao causing problems for the Hendon defence with his direct running, may have had a small edge, while a high bouncing ball didn't come down quickly enough for Elliott Charles, who had got behind the back of the home defence, and that chance went begging.

In the 34th minute, a sloppy piece of defending by Hendon allowed Maldon & Tiptree to take the lead. The first shot was blocked and as Sean Thomas tried to get across to the loose ball, he was unable to stop Marcus Milner bundling it over the line.

Hendon's clearest opening of the first half fell to Carl McCluskey, whose mazy run took him through four tackles. He did, however, have both Charles and Scott Cousins well positioned for a pass, but none was forthcoming and the midfielder didn't get off a shot either, much to the frustration of team-mates and fans behind the goal alike.

Things should have got much worse for Hendon in the early part of the second half. In the 51st minute, Yao got to the by-line and rolled the ball back into the path of Kevin McLeod, who somehow contrived to mishit his shot from six yards out and Sean Thomas pulled off a fine point blank save. The rebound bounced to James Lawson, who shot over the bar.

And Lawson had another great chance to score in the 58th minute. Set up again by a tidy pass, he had time to pick his spot, but he elected for power, got under the ball and launched it into the foliage behind the goal.

This was the turning point because, within three minutes Hendon were level. A ball from Casey Maclaren turned around the Maldon & Tiptree defence and Greg Ngoyi was quickest to react. He played a short pass back into the path of McCluskey, who beat Billy Burgess before firing a shot, which took a deflection and ended up just inside the far post.

Darren Behcet seemed to have had plenty of time to make the save, but he was probably a little unsighted and then deceived by the deflection. Buoyed by the goal, Hendon upped the tempo and quickly got their reward.

In the 65th minute, Behcet made a good save to deny McCluskey a second goal, then did even better to touch Casey Maclaren's well-directed side-foot onto the crossbar. It delayed the inevitable for less than a minute.

The elder Maclaren did well down the right side, fed by James Archer, and he passed to Ngoyi. A drop of the shoulder and defender Adam Flanagan was out of position and only Behcet stood between Ngoyi and a second goal. The goalkeeper stepped to his right, covering the far post, so Ngoyi smacked the ball gleefully inside the near.

Things went from bad to worse for Maldon & Tiptree after 77 minutes when Lawson was shown a straight red card for an off-the-ball incident. It became clear after the game that Lawson had elbowed Kevin Maclaren in the back of the head, which was spotted by the referee. It should be said that there was no reaction from any Hendon player to the initial incident and none from the Maldon team when their colleague was sent from the field.

Godfrey came on for the final ten minutes, replacing Ngoyi, while Maldon & Tiptree made a trio of substitutions, including the withdrawal of Ian Cousins, easily their most accomplished defender. Despite Maldon having more attackers on the field they were unable to trouble either Parker or Michael Peacock, let alone Thomas behind them.

And it was Thomas who picked up an assist for Hendon's third goal, in the last minute of normal time. His long clearance was contested by Flanagan and Charles, but neither was able to get a touch.

When the ball fell behind them, Godfrey was all alone. Behcet was quickly off his line, but Godfrey delicately lifted the ball over the tall goalkeeper and turned away in joy as it dipped just under the crossbar and bounced into the net.

Before play could resume, Belal Aite-Ouakrim replaced Charles and had a couple of runs, without getting close to the danger area. Just about the only negative of the second half was a caution for Casey Maclaren, but Maldon & Tiptree, whose time-wasting tactics before the equaliser had riled the Hendon faithful, were far guiltier and they might have had many more than the three players shown second-half yellow cards.