Hendon bounced back from the disappointment of losing to AFC Hornchurch with a comfortable victory over Grays Athletic at their temporary Aveley home on Wednesday night. The win lifted the Greens to within 11 points of the playoffs,

Berkley Laurencin was suffering from flu so Israeli goalkeeper Tomer Sherman stepped up to make his debut. Also Michael Bryan came back into the starting eleven at the expense of Tony Taggart, who dropped to the subs bench.

Sherman was quickly called into action when, in the sixth minute, Jared Small broke towards the penalty area. The goalkeeper came out to narrow the angle and succeeded in forcing Small wide down the Grays left and leaving him with little of the target to aim at.

Small, instead of shooting decided to set up teammates arriving late, but his delivery let him down. The retreating Sherman was able to gather the low cross close to the penalty spot before any Grays player in and around the penalty area could the ball.

Three minutes later, Hendon were in front. Good work by Bryan and Jack Bennett resulted in a low cross to just outside the penalty area. It was perfectly placed for the incoming Anthony Thomas, who rifled the ball into the bottom corner from 22 yards out.

In the 21st minute, Hendon came close to doubling their advantage when Jefferson Louis - who had been subjected to some very close and frequently illegal attention from defenders - set up Thomas again. This time his effort was superbly saved by Lemar Johnson.

Five minutes later, Bryan went on a mazy run which took him past half a dozen defenders. When he reached the penalty area, he appeared to run out of steam, or his shot simply lacked the power and/or direction to trouble Johnson, who saved easily.

Grays were struggling to contain Hendon, but they were not without chances of their own. After half an hour Joao Carlos had an excellent opportunity to equalise but he squandered it.

And it proved to be a costly miss because, on the stroke of half-time, Hendon doubled their advantage. The Greens' approach play, despite the difficult conditions on a cold, misty night, remained attractive and a three man move ended with Louis sweeping the ball home from close range to reach the 20-goal mark for the season.

Early in the second half, Hendon were penalised just outside their own penalty area. The free-kick was drilled goalwards, but Sherman was equal to it, producing an excellent save at the expense of a corner which Grays rather wasted.

And the hosts made things even harder for themselves - in fact nigh on impossible when goalkeeper Johnson was red-carded midway through the second half. Louis got the better of a Grays defender whose lunge brought him down.

Everyone waited for what seemed an obvious free-kick, except none was forthcoming and the ball continued to go towards the Grays goal. Louis picked himself up before a Grays defender could react and still was able to reach the ball before Johnson could get to it coming off his line.

The big striker took the ball around the goalkeeper and was about to roll the ball into the unguarded net when Johnson pulled him down. It was an obvious penalty and the most unarguable example of denying an obvious goalscoring opportunity.

Johnson knew his fate as soon as the referee had pointed to the penalty spot and the red card which followed was inevitable. Without a substitute goalkeeper on the bench, Phil Anderson swapped his No. 4 shirt for the No. 1

His first act was to face Louis from the penalty spot. The striker won the battle to complete his double and give Hendon an apparently insurmountable 3-0 lead. A week earlier, the Greens had almost failed to see out a three-goal lead at North Greenford United, so this advantage had to be described as almost insurmountable.

And, of course, Hendon couldn't see out the game. Within a couple of minutes Grays had reduced the advantage to two goals as Jeff Hammond headed home from close range after Sherman had failed to deal with a cross.

Both teams made a host of substitutions and it was Grays who enjoyed the better possession and territory in the final quarter of the match. Six minutes from the end of normal time, two of the substitutes combined to send Hendon's nerves jangling.

Perry Tamburini, aged 18 and on his debut, delivered a teasing cross that seemed destined to be put into the net by Bryan Moses. The giant striker extended the full length of his frame, but his feet were inches away from diverting the ball into the net.

Had the ball gone in, Grays would have gone all out for an equaliser and Hendon would have endured an agonising final few minutes, plus five more of added time.

Instead, Athletic rather meekly accepted their fate and, still holding onto their two goal lead, the Greens were able to see out the remainder of the match without too many alarums or excursions.

"Not many teams will come here in these conditions and come away with as good victory as ours," said a delighted manager Gary McCann. "It was a job well done and it was both professional and thorough.

"That said, we didn't play as well as we can, but the conditions were not easy, with the dew making the pitch very slick. This is always a difficult place to go and play well but we stressed the mental side of things in our preparation for the match.

"My one real criticism was that we didn't work their replacement goalkeeper anywhere near enough. We made wrong decisions and took the wrong option too many times. But as we were already 3-0 up, we were probably in no more than second gear and were coasting a bit."