Hendon scored early, twice, and late to secure a second consecutive victory and stretch their unbeaten run to four matches. The defeat of landlords Harrow Borough in the Greens' nominal away game, albeit temporarily lifted them into the top half of the Ryman League table.

There were two changes in the Greens' team as Lee Angol and Michael Bryan came into the starting eleven at the expense of Dave Diedhiou and Tony Taggart.

Anyone who arrived after 15 minutes and left a couple of minutes before the end of normal time might have thought that Borough had won with a solitary goal. This is what they would have missed: two goals, a missed sitter and an effort against the post in the early going; a third Hendon goal, and two near misses in the finale.

Hendon made the perfect start. In the fourth minute, a superb cross from Jack Bennett was met with an imperious header from Jefferson Louis.

In the fifth minute, a superb cross from Michael Bryan was met with an imperious header from Jefferson Louis.

The two crosses came from opposite wings, but everything else, including the almost non-existent Harrow marking, were identical. And it should have got even worse for Borough four minutes after Louis's second goal.

Junior Morias found himself in space as he chased Lee O'Leary's through ball. Alex Tokarczyk came off his line and suddenly realised he was not going to reach it.

Instead of standing up and making himself a big target for Morias to shoot past, Tokarczyk back-pedalled. An experienced player would instinctively have rolled the ball towards one of the corners of the goal, confident that Tokarczyk, whose footwork left him completely off-balance would never get down to make a save.

Instead the impetuosity of youth came to the fore. Morias's effort didn't want for power; just accuracy as it cleared the crossbar.

At 3-0, the chances are that the game would have been over as a contest. Having dodged the bullet as it were, Harrow took heart and, a couple of minutes later, Adam Louth put an effort off the outside of the angle of post and crossbar.

Seven minutes later, Shaun Lucien struck a free-kick that beat Charlie Horlock, but the ball struck the left upright, albeit on the outside as it swerved away from the target and went away for a Hendon goal-kick.

In the 35th minute, Harrow did have the ball in the net. Unfortunately, Michael Peacock's celebration of a goal against his former club was stilled by the sight of the assistant referee standing, with his flag raised for offside.

This last escape seemed to wake up Hendon, who finished the half almost as strongly as they started it.

Five minutes before the interval, Kevin Maclaren might have tried his luck from 60 yards out as a Tokarczyk clearance fell straight at his feet and the goalkeeper was nowhere near the goal. It would have been an audacious attempt in the extreme, something for which Maclaren is not noted, and he instead was happy to build from midfield.

Tokarczyk produced an excellent save to keep out a drive from Chris Seeby in the 43rd minute. Then a shot by Bryan from the edge of the penalty area struck a defender and the goalkeeper was grateful to see the deflection loop over the goal-line, away from the near post, for a goal-kick.

Louis should have completed his hat-trick two minutes after the resumption when the home team's marking was again absent without leave. This time, however, the header from a left-wing cross went just wide of the near post.

Tokarczyk made a good low sprawling save to keep out a cross from Morias as Hendon looked likely to add a third goal. Then an effort from Angol struck a team-mate who could not get out of the way.

Harrow's dread fear of crosses continued, but they were fortunate that balls into the danger area from Bennett, Bryan and Morias all fell into vacant areas and red-shirted defenders were able to effect clearances.

And after these escapes, Harrow did get back into the game. Simeon Akinola showed what he was capable of with a powerful run down the left flank. He cut inside and drove a shot just wide of the far post.

And, ten minutes into the second half, Borough were level. Another good raid down the left flank saw the ball moved inside to Akinola and this time he finished with a shot just inside the far post.

Borough should have drawn level midway through the half when a cross from the right wing was met with a free header from Saheed Sankoh, no more than six yards out. All he had to do was put the effort on target towards the far post, but he tried to be too cute and the ball hit the advertising hoarding instead of the net.

As the Hendon defence stiffened, Sam Flegg and James Fisher began to reassert their domination of Leroy Griffiths and Akinola. Harrow did get one more clear chance in the final 20-odd minutes.

An error of judgement by Horlock, coming off his line too early, wasn't punished as it might have been. Griffiths got to the ball first, but did little more than lob the ball back to the goalkeeper.

Carl McCluskey came on for Angol, while Billy Lobjoit replaced Bryan, as Hendon regained the initiative. Morias fired just over the bar, with McCluskey better placed for an attempt on goal and Tokarczyk just got his hand to a low cross from Morias as McCluskey and Louis ran in.

With 15 minutes to go, Hendon should have had a penalty when Louis got the better of Manny Parry, turned him, despite having his shirt pulled and his shoulder grabbed. To the dismay and disbelief of the players and fans closest to the incident, the assistant referee ruled that it was the striker who had done the holding, despite being in front of the defender.

The ever-willing Morias then set up another Hendon raid when he harried Louth into a back-pass, then chased down Tokarczyk, whose clearance went out for a throw-in only a couple of yards from the corner-flag.

Morias couldn't quite see out the 90 minutes, and he went off with two minutes of normal time remaining. Taggart came on at a Hendon attacking set-piece, which had to be delayed for a couple of seconds as the assistant referee was not in position.

Taggart still didn't have time to get out to the left wing, which was just as well for Hendon because, when the ball came into the penalty area, there was Taggart to fire a shot which deflected off Parry into the net.