Hendon made it three wins in five days, and three clean sheets into the bargain, as they saw off Lewes at The Dripping Pan on Tuesday night. The Greens even had to see out a 15-minute floodlight problem which saw the first half delayed.

Since losing to Enfield Town at the start of February, Hendon have picked up 26 points from 12 matches and are just five points off a top-five (playoff) spot in the Ryman League Premier Division. In fact since collecting a mere five points from their first seven League outings, the Greens have amassed 61 points from 32 matches - which equates to almost 88 points in a 46-game season.

Tony Taggart and Adam Wallace returned to the starting line-up at the expense of Jose Figura and Anthony Thomas. The two rested players remained in the 16-man party, as substitutes.

The first item of note was a shot from a Lewes striker which narrowly missed the target. It would be recurring feature of the evening as Joe McDonnell was not forced into making a single save worth the name in the 90 minutes.

Then came the partial floodlight failure which caused a hold-up in play. With lights on in surrounding houses and in other parts of the ground, it was clearly a local matter and not a general power failure and the referee was happy to suspend play for a few minutes while the problem was solved and the lights cooled down before being switched back on.

"I was dreading the worst," admitted Hendon manager Gary McCann. "The last thing I wanted to was to come all the way here and then have to come back in a couple of weeks, having already played a couple of days earlier."

Once the game had resumed, Hendon took control. In the 15th minute, Wallace found himself in space to shoot and he fired past Rikki Banks, but saw the ball bounce off the post and away to safety.

It didn't take long for Hendon to take the lead, however, as Leon Smith continued his rich vein of form. Lee O'Leary was given too much room just inside the penalty area and shot at goal. A Lewes defender blocked the ball but sent it straight back to the midfielder.

His second attempt was on target, but was blocked by the diving Alex Malins, who used his arms to make a save. As Banks and a couple of defenders were behind the Rooks' full-back, the referee was satisfied that he was not denying an obvious goalscoring opportunity and issued a yellow card - as well as awarding the penalty.

Smith took responsibility for the spot-kick. He converted with aplomb, sending Banks the wrong way.

Lewes tried to get back into the game and with Chris Seeby, Sam Flegg, Elliott Brathwaite and Jack Bennett forming an impenetrable barrier in front of Joe McDonnell, the Rooks were limited to trying long-rage efforts, a couple which tamely missed the target. There was a better attempt by Luke Blewden, but he could not keep his header below crossbar height.

As good as Hendon had been in the first half, they were even better after the resumption. With Kevin Maclaren and O'Leary dominant in the centre of midfield, the Greens actually enjoyed even more success out wide.

Taggart, who along with Michael Bryan, teased and tormented the home defence to distraction, was desperately unlucky not to add to the Greens lead. He drilled a shot from outside the penalty which beat Banks all ends up, but rebounded Lewes's way from the inside of a post.

Hendon's second goal, midway through the second half, was one of the candidates for goal of the season. It started with Bennett chasing back towards his own line, under pressure from the Rooks winger.

He could have knocked the ball out for a throw-in level with his own six-yard box, but, instead, turned the other way, beat his man and fed the ball out to Flegg, who played the ball forward. When it reached O'Leary, he looked up and saw there was a great opening developing in front of him.

O'Leary's chip over the top of the defence was perfectly weighted for Smith, who timed his run to perfection to beat the offside trap and control the ball 40 yards from goal. Banks came off his line to meet the advancing Smith, but the striker was too good for him and scored his ninth goal in 10 Ryman League starts.

Although Lewes did respond with a header from Nathan Crabb, which narrowly went over the bar, it was Hendon who came much closer to another goal. This time it was Bryan who tried his luck and he, too, was thwarted by a Lewes post, though Banks did well to get a hand to the ball and was rewarded when the rebound went straight back to him.

Figura, Thomas and Dave Diedhiou all came on in the final quarter, replacing Taggart, Wallace and Smith, respectively. The three fresh pairs of legs did everything but add to Lewes's misery, with Thomas being exceptional in his 20-minute cameo appearance. In the end, and this is probably being a bit greedy, the only disappointment for Hendon was that the margin of victory wasn't greater.