Hendon climbed two places to second in the Ryman League Premier Division table, maybe only for 24 hours, as they overcame the team that started the day immediately below them, Metropolitan Police. With the three points, Hendon now have 71, the most under Gary McCann's management and the opening goal was another statistic, the 900th scored by the team during his decade-long tenure

The Greens made two changes to the team which had beaten Tonbridge two days earlier. Leon Smith and Kevin Maclaren came in for Aaron Morgan and Kezie Ibe, both of whom were named on the bench. Max McCann was the one who dropped out of the 16 to accommodate the returning Maclaren, who had completed his suspension.

On the balance of possession and territory, Hendon might be considered fortunate to have nicked the victory, but although they were under the cosh for large parts of the game, the Greens' defence was absolutely outstanding.

With teams fourth and fifth in the table at the start of play, it was perhaps unsurprising that there was great intensity to the contest and both teams were guilty of stepping over the line on occasion. The referee did his best to manage the game and the fact that 22 players came of the pitch at the end of the game was probably more down to a little bit of leniency because cases could have been made for at least four to have seen red either for single bad challenges or a multitude of offences.

To the Hendon management's credit, the decision to replace Dave Diedhiou with Sam Flegg at half-time saved the full-back because he had been walking a tightrope for more than 25 minutes. In fact, Flegg produced a masterful 45 minutes, stifling the dangerous Bradley Hudson-Odoi and leaving him very frustrated.

The first half had few incidents of note. Smith was denied an opening Hendon goal by brilliant save from Joe Tupper after 15 minutes and Casey Maclaren had a goal correctly disallowed for pushing six minutes before the interval.

At the other end, Ben McNamara had a horrible moment when he dropped the ball, readying himself to kick it downfield from the turf, only for Nikki Ahmed, lurking with intent behind him, suddenly tried to steal possession. The goalkeeper picked up the ball and was correctly penalised to give the Police an indirect free-kick inside the penalty area. It was wasted, being sent high over the crossbar.

McNamara had earlier been surprised by a snapshot and made an uncomfortable save. Matt Pattison followed up, but the assistant referee ruled he had been in an offside position when the first shot was struck, so by chasing into towards the goalkeeper, he became active.

In the 41st minute, Jake Reid got free at a corner and had an unchallenged header from 10 yards out. He failed, however, to keep the ball down.

On the stroke of half-time, Steve Sutherland made a reckless challenge on Lee O'Leary, earning himself a caution and forcing the Hendon man to receive treatment. The free-kick was around 25 metres from goal and Andre Da Costa immediately claimed it.

The referee moved the ball back about six inches, as the six-man defensive wall protected the left side of the goal. They shouldn’t have bothered because Da Costa's strike was perfect, bending over and around the wall before dipping inches under the angle of post and crossbar.

This was the 900th goal scored by Hendon in the 10 years and six weeks of Gary McCann's tenure as manager, and few could have been struck so sweetly or accurately.

For the first 20 minutes of the second half, Hendon were pinned deep inside their own half, but Elliott Brathwaite, Flegg, Charlie Goode, Ollie Sprague and Kevin Maclaren, in front of them, created a barricade through which the Police could not pass. McNamara caught most of the crosses that were close to him, or punched them away if the pressure was severe, but neither Reid, nor Pattinson, nor Ahmed got any change out of the rearguard.

It was a feature of the game that both teams employed two wide players, Sam Murphy and Da Costa for the Greens, Hudson-Odoi and Joe Turner for the Blues. What they did as a result of their attacking work was to force their opposing full-backs, Rob Bartley and Will Salmon for the Police and Diedhiou/Flegg and Sprague for Hendon to stay in deeper positions.

Having weathered the storm, Hendon struck a second, killer blow to the Police hopes. Goode rose highest at a set-piece and his header beat Tupper, but not the crossbar. The ball bounced down and fastest to react was Casey Maclaren, who turned the ball into the net.

Peter Dean and Ibe came on late in the game for Kevin Maclaren and Smith, while the Police left it until the final ten minutes before making their changes Mu Maan and Charlie Collins replacing Pattison and the struggling Rob Bartley in a double-swap, then adding Romayne Marsh-Brown to the attacking options at the expense of Hudson-Odoi.

It paid off right at the end of the 90 minutes as former Harrow Borough and Wingate & Finchley man Marsh-Brown, one of three recent signings for the Blues (along with Tupper - on loan from Reading - and Reid - on loan from Dover Athletic) looped a header into the far corner of the goal.

There were more than five minutes of stoppage time for Hendon to endure, but they did so with a degree of comfort. Dean and Ibe distinguished themselves with an excellent spell of possession that took up more than a minute of the added time and the final whistle was greeted with huge cheers.