Hendon reached the semi-final of the London Senior Cup, setting up a tie away to landlords Harrow Borough, but this was almost a backdrop to the bigger story. The Greens beat Corinthian–Casuals 5-1 at Silver Jubilee Park, the ground the club hopes to call home in the future.

The attendance on a cold Thursday night was a truly remarkable 239, probably three to four times more than would have normally have turned up for a match such as this one. It was the perfect baptism of Silver Jubilee Park - at least in Hendon terms - and has clearly added to the excitement about the Greens' future.

With two vital League games coming up two and four days later, manager Gary McCann took the option of making wholesale changes. Dave Diedhiou, Charlie Goode, Lee O'Leary and Kezie Ibe were among the substitutes named on the bench, Roman Michael-Percil being the other, giving starts to Sam Flegg, James Fisher, Max McCann and Leon Smith. Kevin Maclaren, who injured his hamstring at the weekend, also missed out, with Andre Da Costa - as he had done at Billericay - replacing him.

Corinthian-Casuals, who had played Ryman League Division One South runaway leaders Burgess Hill Town on Tuesday night - and held them to a laudable draw - struggled to deal with the pace and passing accuracy of the Hendon team. The Greens also had the benefit of the slope in the first half, making the Casuals' task both physically and metaphorically uphill.

Danny Bracken, who turned down a move to Bundesliga club Hoffenheim earlier this season, was kept busy, though there was nothing in the first 20-odd minutes that would have been considered particularly taxing. However, in the 25th minute, the goalkeeper was left helpless as Hendon took the lead.

Frustratingly for statisticians, the first ever Hendon goal scored as the home team at Silver Jubilee Park was an own goal, netted by Mahrel Bettache. He was at full stretch trying to deal with a diagonal ball from Aaron Morgan.

Unfortunately for the striker, the ball was six to eight yards from goal when Bettache - with no green-shirted player within two yards of him - slid in and redirected the ball off the underside of the crossbar and into the net. It should be added that Morgan's effort was, by some distance, missing the goal.

Having gone a goal in front, Hendon were able to relax and Morgan and Smith started to torment the visiting defence with their power, pace and movement. In the 35th and 39th minutes, the two players both scored and, on both occasions, defenders were looking towards the assistant referee for relief, but more in hope than expectation.

Morgan's run to beat the offside trap was the clearer, and he had to get a touch to get clear of the defender. As Bracken came off his line, Morgan had to stretch a little before toe-poking the ball past him.

The goal from Smith, his 22nd of the season, was almost in slow motion. He took the ball forward, slowed to a near halt as he stared at the assistant referee, almost daring him to signal for offside and, when he was satisfied no flag would be forthcoming, Smith jinked past the goalkeeper, left Joe Hicks sitting on the ground and rolled the ball into the net.

Before the start of the second half, Mason Welch-Turner took over from Ross Defoe for Corinthian–Casuals and, for Hendon, Oliver Sprague and Casey Maclaren were withdrawn. Elliott Brathwaite took over the captain's armband from Maclaren, while Michael-Percil and O'Leary were the players to come on.

As a result of the changes, Hendon had to reshuffle their personnel and it took them a while to get back into the flow of the game. With the slope in their favour Corinthian-Casuals had more of the play but Ben McNamara didn't have much of note to do. And, holding a three-goal advantage, Hendon were content to pass the ball around in the middle of the pitch.

Midway through the half, Hendon made their final change, Fisher going off and Ibe replacing him. Robert Kasanga also came on, replacing Casuals' Jason Turley.

With 19 minutes to go, Hendon forced a corner and, almost immediately, conceded a goal. The ball was cleared by the Casuals defence and Bettache, Jamie Byatt and Max Austin ran at the solitary Hendon defender. They almost made a mess of the chance, but Bettache took the ball away from McNamara and Byatt stroked the ball into the net.

The Hendon response came 10 minutes later, and it was an absolute cracker. The Greens won the ball deep inside their own half and the ball was passed forward at pace. Ibe took on possession and slipped the ball into the path of O#Leary, who was breaking forward towards the penalty area.

O'Leary probably could have taken the shot himself, but he returned the ball to Ibe, who controlled it, drew Bracken and rolled the ball into the net.

A minute later, Bettache's unhappy night got worse as he was shown a yellow card for a late tackle. The Hendon free-kick was blocked and another Casuals charge downfield followed. The shot from Jake Gill beat McNamara all ends up, but the full-back was very unlucky to see the ball thump off the underside of the crossbar and bounce back out.

With three minutes remaining, Hendon rounded off an excellent evening's work. Morgan and Hicks turned to chase a dropping ball and the striker manoeuvered himself in front of the defender. Both players were looking up at the ball as Hicks cannoned into Morgan sending both players into a heap 10 yards from goal.

There was absolutely no intent or violence in the collision, and the referee did the correct thing in pointing to the penalty spot and taking no action against the Casuals skipper.

Morgan took responsibility for the penalty and his strike was powerful and true, bending away from the goalkeeper as it nestled in the side netting.