Hendon, for almost the first time this season, received a little bit of luck in an away Ryman League Premier Division match and clinically turned into their first three-point haul of the campaign. In truth, the Greens had not deserved to trail to Thurrock at half-time at the Ship Lane Stadium on Tuesday night, but after a stuttering 30 minutes in the second turned things around.

Among the interested spectators in the crowd of 164 were two former Hendon managers, Peter Taylor (who earlier played for and later managed the full England team) and Terry Harris, now assistant to John Still at Dagenham & Redbridge.

Greg Ngoyi and Darren Currie returned to the Hendon starting line-up at the expense of Julian Owusu and Isaiah Rankin, both of whom were named as substitutes. With both James Fisher and Ryan Wharton still absent injured, Casey Maclaren continued in the middle of the defence.

In the third minute, Hendon should have taken the lead when a right-wing cross to the far post was met by an unmarked Belal Aite-Ouakrim. Had he directed his on-target header anywhere other than directly at David Hughes he would surely have scored. Instead the goalkeeper scrambled a save.

Hendon were no unduly troubled by a Thurrock team which, like Hendon, has found scoring goals their biggest problem. Ryan Imbert, who like fellow forward Harry Honesty, has stepped up from the Essex Senior League this season, found Elliott Brathwaite, the Maclaren brothers, Howard Hall and Scott Cousins far less accommodating than opponents in previous campaigns and the Fleet were left with trying their luck from long-range, or hoping for an error from the Dons.

Midway through the first half, the latter scenario played out and Hendon found themselves behind, entirely through their own shortcomings. Hall played the ball to Dean Cracknell - playing against one of his former clubs - but he lost possession and Imbert suddenly had a clear run at goal.

As Casey Maclaren moved across to shut off his bee-line at Berkley Laurencin, Imbert rolled the ball Jack Paxman, who was in acres of space. Paxman needed no second bidding to drill the ball past the exposed Laurencin for the opening goal.

Hendon's attempts to get back into the game foundered on the dual rocks of poor decision-making and inaccurate shooting. Thurrock defenders got lucky on a number of occasions as clearances were sliced to team-mates, found touch or just evaded orange-clad attackers. Both Ngoyi and Aite-Ouakrim got the faintest of touches to clearances, but not enough to profit.

The second half was, for more than half an hour, very disappointing for Hendon. Playing towards the car park end, where they had failed to score in any of their previous 10 competitive visits to the ground, a number of openings were created, but Hughes was not called into action once.

With just over 20 minutes remaining, Imbert was replaced by former Barnet striker Charlie Stimson - the son of the Fleet manager. Hendon made a double change seven minutes later, Owusu and Rankin taking over from Aite-Ouakrim and Cracknell, respectively.

It would wrong to say the changes led directly to the Greens' equaliser a minute later. Hall, further forward than earlier in the match, harried the Fleet defence and forced a mistake from then just outside the angle of the penalty area. He latched onto the loose ball, controlled it and drilled it past Hughes into the bottom corner.

With seven minutes to go Dave Diedhiou replaced Ngoyi, his energy coming out of midfield being designed to unsettle the now distinctly nervous home defence. A shot from outside the penalty area, almost slipped under Hughes, but the goalkeeper was able bundle the ball out for a corner.

Thurrock made a hash of dealing with the set piece, and the ball fell almost perfectly for Lee O'Leary, but the midfielder was unable to punish the sloppy defending.

Then, in the final minute of normal time, the three Hendon substitutes found themselves faced by only the two Thurrock central defenders on the edge of the Fleet penalty area. Owusu shot towards goal and the ball struck the outstretched hand of Ben Walster diverting away from the goal.

The defender's intervention was entirely unintentional and his caution for handball might have been for dissent instead of handball. Either way, Hendon had a penalty and the chance to win the game.

Owusu immediately volunteered to take the kick, but Currie was given the office. He stepped up and sent Hughes the wrong way to give Hendon the lead.

There were almost five minutes of stoppage time for the Hendon players and faithful to endure, but there were few alarms and the Greens were able to claim a vital victory.

"It was a very late night for me, but I slept easier for sure," said Hendon manager Gary McCann. "I went in at half-time very folorn because we had played well, only to give away another poor goal while making bad choices in front of their goal. But, fair play to the players, they turned it around after the break.

"Even so, we were not anywhere as near as good in the second half. We huffed and puffed and probed, but didn’t really look like scoring. Then Howard Hall capitalised on the sort of error we have been making and equalised.

"When it came to the penalty, Darren Currie was the only player I wanted to take it."