Hendon produced a scintillating first-half performance to brush aside Kingstonian, though - having to play the 35 minutes with 10 men - were completely on the defensive in the second half. With two of the top three losing - and the other postponed - on Saturday, it was a really good day for the Greens, who are now just eight points off the top of the Ryman League Premier Division.

After a weather-induced two-week gap in competitive fixtures, there were unsurprisingly a few changes in the Hendon starting line-up. Ollie Sprague, Leon Smith and Peter Dean all dropped out and were replaced by, Tony Taggart, Kevin Maclaren and Aaron Morgan, though Dean and Smith were named on the bench.

The low sun was a problem for both defences, but it affected Kingstonian more, even though they started well and forced a corner inside 10 seconds. It came to nothing, but Ks did have a couple of shots, neither of which caused Ben McNamara too many problems.

Making things more difficult both teams was the state of the pitch, which passed an early-morning inspection, but was very heavy. Casey Maclaren found himself in the referee's notebook for what looked a crude challenge but, in mitigation, he had slipped two yards from the Kingstonian player and his challenge was almost in slow-motion.

Once Hendon got going forward, they quickly took control and made the Kingstonian defence look very ordinary. Their first attack of note, in the 13th minute, saw a shot blocked away for corner.

The set-piece was delivered into the danger area, but was just about cleared at the expense of a second corner. This time, when the ball came in, no Ks player spotted Casey Maclaren's run and he had more than half of the goal to net with his header from five yards out.

Two minutes later the lead was doubled in magnificent fashion. A raking pass from Lee O'Leary picked out Sam Murphy galloping down the left wing.

He cut inside Aaron Goode and could have attempted to beat Rob Tolfrey, albeit from an acute angle. Instead, Murphy laid the ball to Morgan, who also passed up on the shot in favour of a pass to Kezie Ibe.

With his first touch, Ibe made a hash of either a shot or a return pass to Morgan; with his second, he produced an outrageous dummy which sent Sam Page and Dan Sweeney sprawling across the six-yard box and created a sudden opening. An instant, curling left-foot shot from Ibe bent the ball past Tolfrey's vain dive and just inside the left upright.

Things got even better for Hendon in the 25th minute. Chris Seeby galloped down the right wing, found his path to a cross blocked by Dylan Casey, so he laid the ball back to Kevin Maclaren, who arrived in perfect time to lend support.

Maclaren's first-time cross was well-weighted and Morgan dived forward to head the ball just inside the near post.

Five minutes later, Tolfrey made a superb save to deny Ibe and Morgan couldn't get the ball out from under his feet as Hendon looked likely to score every time they attacked. However, at the other end, Kingstonian were more than happy to try their luck with shots, but they were almost always from long-range and were either off target or easy meat for McNamara.

If the first half had been an exhibition in clinical finishing by Hendon, the second was an exhibition in bodies-on-the-line defending by the Greens. Just how dominant Kingstonian were can be clearly shown by the following statistics: Tolfrey touched the ball four times, and the only time he handled it was to take a throw-in ten yards from the goalline.

It might been different story if Hendon hadn't suffered the blow of losing Seeby just before the hour mark. Seeby attacked down the right wing, but his run was halted by Pico Gomez, who then stamped on him.

Seeby's reaction was to push him in the neck with his forearm. The assistant referee, who missed the stamp, saw Seeby's reaction and told the referee it was an elbow. In turn, to Seeby's shock and horror he was shown a straight red card.

By the letter of the law, Seeby's action, raising his arm to an opponent, merited a red card, but it was unfortunate that neither the referee nor his assistant saw the original incident, so Gomez went unpunished and the free-kick went to Kingstonian.

Almost immediately Morgan was withdrawn and Max McCann came on to bolster the midfield which was being overrun. A few minutes later, Murphy - who had dropped back into Seeby's position - made way for Andre Da Costa.

All the attacking possession remained with Kingstonian, but Elvis Hammond and Charlie Penny never looked like getting the better of the outstanding duo of Charlie Goode and Elliott Brathwaite. The two Hendon centre-backs barely missed a header or lost a tackle anywhere near or inside the box.

Tony Taggart and multitude of right-sided defenders more than held their own against Ks wide players and those running from midfield found O'Leary, Casey and Kevin Maclaren and Max McCann willing runners and chasers in defensive positions.

There were a few alarms and excursions but, for all their pressure, Kingstonian didn't create many clear cut openings. Their shots grew in desperation and inaccuracy in equal measure. Ks made two changes in quick succession, Jesse Darko taking over from Alex Addai and Dan Buckle replacing Gomez. Leon Smith was Hendon's last substitute, coming for Ibe.

With 10 minutes of normal time remaining, Kingstonian got their lifeline. A scramble from a corner saw the ball blocked on the goalline and the rebound was knocked into the net by Sam Page.

It was almost Page's last act, because he made way for Will Bor with eight minutes on the clock. There were more than four minutes of stoppage time, but Kingstonian were unable to create any clear openings and Hendon held out with increasing comfort.

Smith had a couple of runs, but he had no support and the pitch was not conducive to 50-metre runs so the moves petered out. They did, however, fulfil the vital need for taking up valuable time - the one commodity Kingstonian did not have.