For your correspondent, the best thing about today's friendly against Uxbridge at Honeycroft was the playing of "Wonderful Land" by The Shadows at the end of the match.

Honeycroft was anything but a wonderful land for Hendon today, as they were outthought, outpassed, and outplayed by a workmanlike and effective Uxbridge side that won 2-0, and could and probably should have scored four or five.

The match reverted to two halves of 45 minutes, following the midweek 30 minute periods, though the referee deemed it wise to allow a water break of some three to four minutes around the midpoint of each half.

The undoubted star of today's match was former Hendon player Danny Julienne, who not only controlled midfield, but found time to break up a number of Hendon moves with a crunching but fair tackle or a telling interception.

He was aided and abetted up front by Uxbridge's prolific striker Matty Woods, who at times caused havoc among Hendon's defenders, scoring the second goal and having enough chances to have netted four himself.

As hard as Sam Murphy, Kevin Maclaren, Michael Murray, Lee O'€™Leary, and Max McCann tried, they were unable to wrest midfield control from Julienne.

Despite conceding twice, George Legg was not unduly troubled during the match, as most of Uxbridge's attempts on goal were comfortably high or wide, or were blocked by Hendon defenders before Legg could be involved. Nevertheless he was the busier of the two keepers.

Woods should have opened the scoring for Uxbridge about 15 minutes in when, unmarked about 15 yards out, he wastefully headed a cross a couple of yards over the bar. At the other end, Leon Smith fashioned a chance for himself which was blocked, and later met a cross from Oliver Sprague with a header that was better controlled than Woods' earlier effort but that was still at the keeper.

Uxbridge went ahead after 32 minutes when a snapshot from around 20 yards beat Legg low to his left. He got both hands to the shot but was unable to stop it entering the net, and he may feel that he should have dealt with the shot much better.

Not long after this Aaron Morgan, playing up front alongside Smith, fired off a shot from at least 30 yards that had Uxbridge's keeper in some confusion, partially from the power of the shot but also because the ball appeared to swerve both ways.

Shortly before the end of the first half Kevin Maclaren tried his luck from a similar distance, but this was easier for the keeper to deal with.

Hendon made seven changes at half-time, Legg, Elliott Brathwaite, Smith, and Morgan all completing 90 minutes. The composition of the side changed, with Aaron Morgan playing more as a left-back in the second half.

Lee O'Leary came close to netting his fourth goal in five days soon after the start of the second-half, the keeper struggling rather to turn a not particularly fierce shot round the post.

After this, Uxbridge seemed to be content to soak up Hendon pressure, which at no time in the match was particularly intense, and to break on the counter attack. Having said that, they looked far more likely to score whenever they broke, and should have clinched the game long before Woods scored the second goal with around 10 minutes to go, wriggling free of a couple of defenders and rounding Legg before rolling the ball home.