Hendon needed a late goal to see off a determined Cray Wanderers at sunny but surprisingly windy Earlsmead on Saturday afternoon. It was an important reaction to the midweek defeat against Lowestoft, although the performance lacked some of the cutting edge seen in recent games.

Lee O'Leary was rested, so Dave Diedhiou came into the starting 11 in his place, while Leon Smith and Anthony Thomas were restored at the expense of Ryan Wharton and Adam Wallace.

There was little of note in the opening exchanges as Cray, teetering on the brink of relegation and leaking goals of late, seemed determined to stop goals more than scoring themselves.

It has been an unsuccessful ploy for most of the season for the Wands as they have conceded an average of more than three goals per game, and this clean sheet lasted only a dozen minutes.

In the 12th minute, Smith ran onto a pass 30 yards from goal. Looking up and finding space in front on him, Smith ran forward and drilled a powerful shot past Darren Behcet from just outside the penalty area.

For all the prompting and driving of Kevin Maclaren in the heart of midfield, Hendon found themselves struggling to break down the Cray defence, especially as the Wands' offside tactic worked to great effect.

The Greens' defence has been much stronger in the past month, having conceded one goal from open play in five league matches, and - in the first half at least - Cray rarely looked like disturbing the equilibrium of Chris Seeby, Jack Bennett, Casey Maclaren and Sam Flegg. Their only clear opening came midway through the half when Giannoulis Fakinos had a shooting opportunity, but it went well wide.

Hendon, meanwhile, created three very good openings. In the 29th minute, Smith found himself in a very good position. He had Thomas in support and could have taken a shot himself, but did neither and was stopped by an excellent defensive intervention.

Two minutes later Ugo Udoji should have easily dealt with a ball into the penalty area. His clearance nearly went horribly wrong and the ball narrowly missed the target saving him from a most embarrassing own goal.

Eight minutes before half-time Michael Bryan ran at goal and spotted Behcet coming off his line. He lobbed the ball over the giant goalkeeper, but did not strike the ball quite hard enough as Merrick James-Lewis was able to run back and clear the ball a yard or so from the line.

To their credit, Cray were much better in the second half and caused Hendon more than a few problems. Two minutes into the second half, Paul Vines won a header and it beat Joe McDonnell. Home defenders breathed a sigh of relief as the ball struck the top of the crossbar and bounced away to safety.

McDonnell then made an excellent save to keep out a drive from Moses Ashikodi. He was less troubled by a Fakinos volley, which went straight at him, though the striker should probably have done better with the opportunity.

Both teams made all their changes early in the final quarter. First Smith and Thomas were replaced by Wallace and Michael Murray, while Cray sent on Nathan Simpson for Gary Bennett. With 14 minutes to go, another trio of substitutions saw Flegg replaced by Figura, and Cray's Jordan Bird and Ashikodi substituted by Saul Otobo and Adrian Stone.

Within two minutes, Figura found space in the Wands' penalty area and had a clear header at goal. He couldn’t direct it well and Behcet made a comfortable save.

As the game moved into the final minute, Hendon conceded a free-kick on the edge of their own penalty area. It was Cray's last chance to snatch a point, one their second half efforts probably merited.

Sadly, the ball was poorly struck and it allowed Hendon to break on the counter-attack. The move was halted on the edge of the Cray penalty area - illegally - and the Greens showed how a chance such as this should be taken with a well-worked, planned move.

It also helps to have a dead-ball specialist, such as Murray. His delivery into the danger area was ideally weighted and the late-arriving Casey Maclaren timed his run perfectly to slide the ball into the net from close range.