Hendon reached their fifth London Senior Cup final in seven seasons with a magnificent display against AFC Wimbledon at the Cherry Red Records Fans Stadium Kingsmeadow on Tuesday night. It may only have been the London Senior Cup, but the Greens achieved their first competitive victory against Football League opposition for more than 14 years.

Making this achievement even greater was the line-up of absentees: James Parker, James Archer, Scott Cousins, James Fisher, Elliott Brathwaite, Lee O'Leary, Jamie Busby, Casey Maclaren, Belal Aite-Ouakrim, Greg Ngoyi and Elliott Charles, this ignoring the self-inflicted unavailability through suspension of Michael Lewis. From the 11 who started at Lewes on Saturday, only Dave Diedhiou, Ryan Wharton, Kevin Maclaren, Elliott Godfrey, Darren Currie and Jerome Federico were in the team at Kingsmeadow and maybe only three of the Greens' 10 outfield players would be in from the start with a fully-fit and available Hendon squad.

The match could have been over in the opening six minutes. Twice the AFC Dons could have taken the lead. First an effort flew narrowly wide of the target, then Berkley Laurencin made a smart save from Will Bor.

And, in between those attempts, in the fourth minute, Laurencin was beaten by a powerful drive from Brendan Kiernan. The Greens got lucky, however, as the ball smacked off the foot of a post and the rebound was able to be cleared before Jason Prior could reach it.

In the seventh minute, Isaiah Rankin showed his great experience by timing his run perfectly to get behind Brett Johnson and reach an astute flick-on from Jack Mazzone. Johnson, out of position and the last man, cynically pulled down Rankin. It appeared that the challenge was a yard or two inside the penalty area especially as Rankin landed level with the penalty spot.

However, there was no sanction for the defender and Hendon were awarded a free-kick just outside the penalty area. Currie shaped to shoot, but instead played a magnificent pass into the heart of the penalty area. One touch later, the ball was at the feet of Federico and he slipped it into the net to give Hendon a lead which silenced most of the 611 fans who braved a typically showery April night.

For the next 15 or so minutes, the Hendon goal was under siege. Laurencin made two good saves and the Wombles contrived to miss three great chances. But the best opening of the lot, which fell to Prior, seemed to need only a tap-in for the equaliser, except Diedhiou, almost telescopically, stuck out a foot and was able to divert the ball wide of the target.

In the 24th minute, the game changed. Five yards outside the Hendon penalty area, Kevin Maclaren went for a bouncing ball with a home player. There was absolutely no intent on the latter's part, but his boot made very solid contact with Maclaren's forehead.

Maclaren dropped to his haunches and the referee, after an inspection lasting barely a second, urgently signalled for Mark Findlay's assistance. There was nothing Findlay could do to stem the bleeding from a very deep cut and within a few moments of the two Hendon men walking down the tunnel, the AFC Wimbledon club doctor and a St John's Ambulance medic followed them.

A minute or so later, Cousins came out of the dressing room and gesticulated to the Hendon bench that Maclaren would not be able to continue. In fact, it would be more than an hour before he would leave the dressing, by which time he was sporting a bandage that swathed the top of his head like an exaggerated alice band. At almost any other ground this season, Maclaren would have been taken to the nearest hospital for the wound to be treated.

Carl McCluskey was entrusted with Maclaren's role in midfield and he did a sterling job. But the delay and, as is often the case with a serious injury, maybe the sight of all that blood unnerved the young Wombles players; they finished the half playing with less passion.

The now reduced danger to the Hendon defence continued to come from wide positions, where Diedhiou and Tico Gavi-Mihedji tried to cope with Kiernan and Kieran Djilali, and did a superb job. When the ball made it into the penalty area, Wharton and Michael Peacock gave Prior and Louis Theophanous very little. Behind them, Laurencin commanded the penalty area with calm authority.

Although, Hendon didn't create a huge amount in the way of chances, Wimbledon were wary of the incisive passing of Currie and Godfrey, careful not to allow Rankin or wide-man Federico the chance to create more havoc, and worried by Mazzone's willing running. An example of this willingness to run came in the 41st minute, when Mazzone got his foot to a Turner clearance, but he could not divert the ball towards the goal.

Five minutes into the second half, Hendon scored a goal that is quite unusual for them. A long ball out of defence by Gavi-Mihedji ran to Mazzone, who had pulled away from Dawayne Campbell. The nearest defender was Jim Fenlon, but he was little more than in the vicinity when Mazzone brought down the ball with a deft touch and ran at Turner.

The goalkeeper stood up narrow the angle, but Mazzone backed his accuracy. The left-foot strike was perfectly placed. The ball beat Turner's dive by more than a foot, kissed the inside of the post and rolled into the net.

It was a clinical finish by the teenager and he like Federico had scored his first goal for Hendon. It meant, also, that nine different players had scored the Greens' last nine goals and leading scorer Ngoyi was not on the list.

It would be an exaggeration to say that the goal knocked the stuffing out AFC Wimbledon, because they still enjoyed the lion's share of possession. However, they didn't create anything like the same number of openings as they did in the opening 45 minutes.

In the 69th minute, Hendon might have made the game safe. Federico, whose wing trickery became more and more effective as the night progressed, wriggled his way past Chris Bush and laid an inch-perfect pass into the path of McCluskey.

Much as Prior had been in a position where it was easier to score than to fail when he was denied by Diedhiou, so it was with McCluskey. His nemesis was Kiernan, who tracked back brilliantly and did enough to stop McCluskey making it 3-0, at which point the game would have been over.

Having lost Maclaren in the first half, with 18 minutes remaining, Wharton went off. James Burgess replaced him, but it was not a like-for-like swap. Burgess took McCluskey's role in midfield, while McCluskey dropped back into the heart of the defence.

McCluskey didn't have to deal with Prior, because he had already been replaced by Cherno Mendy – Jake Rose had come on for Djilali at the same time - but he was still asked to fulfil a role somewhat alien to him. And McCluskey did an outstanding job alongside Peacock.

A couple of minutes after Wharton had gone off, Mazzone followed him to the dugout, limping slightly. This was not a serious injury, merely cramp, but enough to end Mazzone's profitable evening's work.

In the final 15 minutes, Laurencin made three excellent saves, two of them doubles. In the 78th minute, he plunged low to his right to push aside a drive from Kiernan, then was up in a flash to block an effort from the left side on the reboud.

He repeated the feat a couple of minutes later, as Hendon struggled to clear their lines and find fellow yellow-shirted players. These were nervous times for the Greens because one goal for AFC Wimbledon would set up a nervous final few minutes.

The second half seemed to drag on and whilst Hendon weren't overtly time-wasting, they could not have been accused of rushing to take set-pieces. This became important because, as the evening wore on and the rain returned, the Wombles’ passing became somewhat wayward.

Nevertheless, Hendon fans feared that there would be around half-a-dozen minutes of stoppage time, to go with the last 90 seconds of the original 90. They had to defend a corner, curled in by Theophanous. His delivery was perfect and the yellow wall was finally breached by Kiernan, one of the smallest players on the pitch, as his header found the back of the net.

This was the perfect stage for Currie and Godfrey to stamp their authority. With the assistance of Federico and Diedhiou down the right flank, they were able to keep the ball for a significant spell to run down the clock. There had been less than three minutes of additional time when the referee blew the final whistle and Hendon had pulled an amazing victory.

Every one of the 14 players did their part, from substitutes Davie and Burgess, keeping things tight in midfield, and McCluskey in his roles as holding midfielder, attacking midfielder and centre-back, to the 11 who started - this was an outstanding team effort.

In the final, which is scheduled for Wednesday 18 April, at Metropolitan Police FC's Imber Court, the Greens will face either Kingstonian or Cray Wanderers; the two Ryman League Premier Division clubs meet just six days before the final - and two days before Ks visit Vale Farm in the league.

Hendon manager Gary McCann said, "It was a brilliant performance. We were so assured all across the pitch. On a good surface such as this, we showed what we could do; our ball retention and passing was top class."

The manager, who is not given to praising individual players, named three, saying "Michael Peacock and Berkley Laurencin have had to be put up with major disappointments recently, not getting much playing time, but they stepped superbly tonight. And Jack Mazzone led the line as competently as I have seen for a long time. He is only 18 and I think he has a fantastic future ahead of him.

"But everyone deserves praise. The defence was outstanding and their effort didn't deserve to concede a goal; the midfield was excellent and the front two were brilliant."