Hendon, battling fatigue and a growing injury list, were still too strong for a Hampton & Richmond Borough team which started and finished fast but were awful in the middle of the game. The Greens' seventh consecutive away victory in the League saw them rise to a season's best 10th place, just four points behind the last of the playoff places.

Berkley Laurencin returned in goal at the expense of Sean Thomas, while injuries meant a recall for James Fisher and a debut for Jack Bennett, Dave Diedhiou and Casey Maclaren the two to drop out. Diedhiou and Sean Sonner were both named as substitutes, but they, along with Junior Lewis, were not used.

Hampton started the match very strongly, desperate to end their slide down the table the result of just two League wins in 13 games. They created two or three good openings, but none were particularly close to the goal.

When the ball came to Joe Turner, he was more than eager to shoot at goal. Laurencin, however, was not called into duty as the ball flew wide of the target on all three occasions in the first 20 minutes.

Going forward, the Beavers posed a constant threat, but their problems are at the other end of the pitch. Goalkeeper Rodney Chiweshe is carrying a foot injury and he is unable to take long-distance goal-kicks, but the hesitancy in front of him cannot have anything to do with that. And as soon as the back-four is put under pressure they resemble a fresh jelly, wobbly every time it is touched.

In the 22nd minute, a back-pass from Malvin Kamara was a little bit short, but Chiweshe made a complete hash of his clearance. The goalkeeper was delighted and relieved in equal measure that Belal Aite-Ouakrim's stretching toe-poke diverted the ball past him, but into the outside of the side-netting.

From that moment on, it was three-alarm time on every occasion Bennett, Dean Cracknell, Aite-Ouakrim, Junior Morias and Lee Angol brought the ball anywhere within 40 metres of the home goal. A couple of minutes later, Darren Powell mishit a clearance and his second attempt, this time in desperation screwed towards Chiweshe, was punched clear.

When Hendon forced a free-kick just before the half-hour mark, the defence cracked again. The ball came to Cracknell, who was stopped by the raised boot of Billy Jeffreys.

The tall centre-half, and more than half of his team-mates, were furious that the referee considered it not only dangerous, but a foul and pointed to the penalty spot. Morias took responsibility for the spot-kick and he out-juked Chiweshe by drilling the beyond the goalkeeper's dive

Morias has a number of assets and he displayed most of them in the 37th minute when doubled the Hendon advantage. Angol and Bennett combined well and when the ball was played forward, Morias showed off his strength and power in muscling past Jeffreys.

He then used his blistering pace to get clear of the defender and race into the penalty area. From 18 yards out, talent No.3 was clear for all to see as Morias smashed the ball goalwards. Chiweshe dived down to make a save, but was not quick enough and the ball went under his body and into the net.

The half-time whistle came as a massive relief to the beleaguered Beavers and a huge frustration to the Greens. A third goal looked imminent almost every time Hendon crossed the half-way line and the home defence was on the point of implosion.

Early in the second half, it seemed as if nothing had changed. In the 53rd minute, Morias got the better of Alan Bray - a shadow of the outstanding Kingstonian defender who had almost single-handedly denied Hendon points on more than one occasion a few years ago - and Powell before drilling the ball across the six-yard box.

Angol was arriving on the scene in perfect time and would have had a simple tap-in, had the long legs of Jeffreys done just enough to deflect the ball away from him. Had the Greens gone 3-0 up, what followed would not have happened and Hendon could probably have done much to improve their goal difference.

Instead, Hampton took heart from the escape and began to exert pressure on the Hendon defence. With an hour on the clock, Charlie Moone finally got the better of the again outstanding Elliott Brathwaite – playing against his former club - and Sam Flegg before firing past Laurencin.

Not having played for some time, Bennett, who had linked up so well with Scott Cousins down the left side, unsurprisingly began to tire, and Hendon's very busy February schedule also caught up with a number of players. The result was that it was the Beavers who took control and forced Hendon into their defensive shell.

The Greens couldn't clear the ball well and his added to the pressure on the defence, but with Kevin Maclaren again magnificent in his work to break up play in front of the back four, the Hampton domination didn't turn into a barrage of attempts at goal.

Laurencin did make one good low save from a long-range shot and Moone direct a free header at him, but all of the other openings didn't require a save of any note and the ball frequently flew high or wide - or both - of the Hendon goal. And when Hendon did launch a rare raid, the insecurity of the Hampton defence and mutual mistrust between goalkeeper and defenders gave hope that the Greens could add to their tally.

A perfect example of this jitteryness came when a through ball was slowing up well short of the penalty area, but Jeffreys left it until the last moment before hooking the ball clear. He then gave his goalkeeper a mouthful of abuse for not taking control, event though Chiweshe pointed out that the centre-back was still standing outside the penalty area.

Isaiah Rankin replaced Bennett for the final quarter of an hour and he almost got on the end of an Angol cross. Then Carl McCluskey replaced Aite-Ouakrim moments after he had nearly touched home a ball bouncing in the Hampton penalty area.

At the other end, Fisher, Maclaren, Cracknell (who played in a deeper role than in previous matches), Flegg, Brathwaite and Cousins ensured that the Hendon goal was not threatened too much and the final whistle was greeted with a mixture of satisfaction and relief.

"We did look a little nervous and edgy late in the game tonight," admitted manager Gary McCann, "but we have some very tired bodies out there. The players have put in a number of very hard shifts this month and it looked as if it was catching up with them.

"None of the games have been easy and we haven't been able to take our foot of the pedal at any time. And, tonight, it looked as if a few players were running on empty.

"Our run has been quite magnificent and all the players involved deserve a massive amount of credit for the results we have achieved. But on Thursday night, we will do a roll-call to see what sort of a team we can put out on Saturday."