Hendon's tenth consecutive undefeated match was achieved in the dying seconds at some cost, but the 2-1 victory over Lewes means the Greens remain in third place in the Ryman League Premier Division. Leon Smith did, however, set a club post-war record when he scored in a seventh consecutive match.

Sam Flegg came into the starting line-up to replace the injured James Fisher in an otherwise unchanged team. Lee O'Leary's rapid return meant he was on the substitute's bench, goalkeeper Brendan Hazlett missing out.

The match started in cagey fashion despite the teams being at opposite ends of the table. Gradually, however, Hendon began to exert a level of pressure on the Lewes defence that suggested a breakthrough might be imminent.

Unfortuantely, for the Greens, it wasn't. There were two or three half-chances, but the very difficult pitch - entirely playable but with a top-surface extremely slick from the morning's heavy rain – meant the final balls were often not quite right.

Smith was very well played by Sam Cole and was given only one sight of goal. When Smith broke clear, his shot was blocked by the legs of former Hendon goalkeeper Rikki Banks, who was continually berating his defence to keep up their work.

The breakthrough did finally arrive in the 33rd minute. Aaron Morgan ran at the heart of the Lewes rearguard and a fired a powerful low shot from just inside the penalty area.

Banks spread himself well and made a good save, but couldn't hold on to the ball. Fastest to react was Smith, who took little time is stroking the ball past the prone goalkeeper into the net.

Two minutes later, the Greens suffered a huge blow when Casey Maclaren bravely challenged for a cross with Banks. Both players were intent on going for the ball and the goalkeeper got to it just first.

Maclaren bounced off Banks in the entirely accidental collision and crashed to the turf. After almost four minutes of treatment for what appeared a damaged shoulder, his shirt making an emergency sling, Maclaren was helped off, to be replaced by O'Leary.

Lewes also had a problem in that midfielder Phil Appiah had earned himself a caution for persistent misconduct, then committed another silly foul. The referee's words and actions towards him made it very clear that one more offence would be his last and, as a result, he had ceased to be a factor in the match.

The last 10 minutes of the half saw little goalmouth action, no doubt all the players concerned for Maclaren's health. Before the resumption for the second half, Lewes replaced Appiah with striker Terry Dodd, the former Bognor man being a sign of intent.

After the morning's rain the late afternoon sunshine added to the players' (and many spectators') problems. The sun, although warming the day, was low enough to be a serious inconvenience, as Banks was left rooted to his line from a sliced clearance, one he would normally have gathered without difficulty around the penalty spot, had he been able to see the ball.

The Rooks certainly controlled the early stages of the second half, even though they appeared to be forced into replacing the dangerous Nicky Wheeler with James Fergany with less than ten minutes gone. Ben McNamara made a good save to deny Nathan Crabb after 52 minutes.

The equaliser came just before the hour mark and it was an excellent goal. Jack Dixon collected a ball midway inside the Hendon half down the Lewes left.

He ran towards the corner of the penalty area, then cut across towards the middle of the goal before striking the ball from about 20 yards out. Two Hendon defenders came out to try to block the ball and succeeded only in making McNamara's chances of seeing the ball almost nil.

Even if the goalkeeper had enjoyed a clear view of the ball, he might have struggled to keep out Dixon's beautiful shot. As it was, he over-committed by a half a stride and had no chance of making the save.

Another half chance came the Rooks' way with 15 minutes to go, but the ball just got away from Dodd and McNamara dived gratefully on it.

In the final quarter, Hendon made two more changes, replacing Andre Da Costa and Morgan with Ibe and Aite-Ouakrim. It gave Hendon three dangerous attacking options, together with Sam Murphy out on the left.

Aite-Ouakrim had just fired over the crossbar when Hendon were denied a penalty. Smith got the better of Cole and ran into the penalty area, along the goalline. He was dragged back twice by the defender, and although the referee appeared to have a good look at the incident, he sought confirmation from his assistant.

Sadly the man with the flag, who had made a couple of strange offside decisions - one being at 20 yards further downfield from where the offence might have been - decided not to flag.

Hendon did finish stronger and crosses from Kevin Maclaren, Chris Seeby and Oliver Sprague could not be converted, Elliott Brathwaite heading just over.

However, with four minutes of stoppage time on the clock, another cross from Sprague was delivered into the danger area. O'Leary timed his run perfectly and met the ball, unchallenged, six yards out. His header was well placed, just inside the post and Hendon had three points.