Hendon reached the last four of the Robert Dyas (Isthmian) League Cup for the first time since 2003 with a comfortable victory over Maidstone United at Earlsmead on Wednesday night. The Greens will face one of Billericay Town, Grays Athletic or Margate in the semi-final.

After another blank Saturday, the Hendon management team was determined to give a number of players game time, so Aaron Morgan and Leon Smith, named as substitutes, were promised 45 minutes, and it was Kezie Ibe and James Fisher who made way for them. Lee O'Leary, his suspension complete, replaced Kevin Maclaren, starting his, while Sam Murphy took over from Smith.

Maidstone, who had been reinstated in the competition following Tonbridge's expulsion after the Angels had beaten them 4-0, showed their intentions by naming manager Jay Saunders, defender Phil Starkey and midfielders Matt Bodkin and Ben Greenhalgh from the first-team squad alongside mainly academy members, many of whom were still eligible to play Under-16s football.

Unsurprisingly, the youngsters were somewhat overrun in the opening exchanges, but Hendon were profligate in front of goal. Charlie Goode, who scored his first Hendon goal in the previous match, should have netted his first Greens hat-trick, probably before half-time. He was unlucky with one of his three efforts; from an acute angle his header struck a post and went straight into the waiting arms of Will Godmon, the young Stones' goalkeeper, who produced an outstanding performance.

Ibe, too, really might also have made a claim for the match-ball, but his finishing was wayward, though he was distinctly unfortunate to find launch one ball over the crossbar as it bobbled just before he struck it.

Hendon had to wait until the 37th minute to make the breakthrough. The Stones defence was ripped open again and when the ball fell to Murphy, he drilled it goalwards. There were at least two deflections, one of which was off Tony Taggart, who thus opened his account for the season.

But it wasn't all one-way traffic. Ben McNamara made four first-half saves, though all were from shots directed straight at him, at different heights and power. There were also a number of attempts which failed to hit the target.

Just before half-time, a rapid counter-attack almost led to a goal, but Gary Smith was also guilty of waywardness, though unlike most of his team-mates who tried their luck from long-range, he was just a few yards from goal, unmarked just beyond the far post. It was a fortunate escape for Hendon.

The decisive second goal came ten minutes into the second half and caused serious argument amongst Hendon fans standing behind the goal. O'Leary chased a through ball that was a little overhit.

Godmon came off his line at an acute angle to reach the ball six yards from the goal-line and a similar distance from the left edge of the penalty area. Realising that the ball would go out of play before O'Leary could reach it, Godmon left the ball alone.

O'Leary, however, seeing the goalkeeper making no attempt to gather the ball veered away from the goalkeeper towards the ball, which was just about to go out of play. Godmon in pulling out of a challenge for the ball fell into O'Leary, sending him to the ground.

There was no intent on his part, but the goalkeeper - certainly in the eyes of the referee - fouled O'Leary. It was as soft a penalty as could be imagined and the position on the pitch ensured that Godmon did not receive a card of any colour.

Murphy, who lost the opening goal to Taggart because of the full-back's deflection, had another chance to bag his seventh of the season. He made no mistake with a strike that beat Godmon’s dive with both power and placement.

Within a couple of minutes, the Hendon defence conceded a free-kick on the edge of their penalty area. The ball was well struck, but it cannoned off the defensive wall and was cleared to safety.

The increasingly slippery pitch certainly played its part in keeping the score down, but the Greens' inability to take other chances didn't help. Smith had three one-on-one chances; one was saved outstandingly, another took a terrible bobble and the third ended with the striker slithering to the floor. Da Costa, on a dangerous run towards goal, suffered the same fate as Smith, falling to the ground with no defender close to making a challenge.

One effort bounced off the crossbar and Smith knocked the rebound off the arms of the challenging Starkey straight to Godmon. Starkey's intervention undoubtedly denied Smith a goal, but given the three players were within two metres of each other and the defender neither saw the ball nor moved his arms, so the continuance of play was absolutely correct.

There was a heartening sight for Hendon, with just under ten minutes remaining, when Ollie Sprague came on for a cameo appearance. He has missed most of 2015 with knee trouble but appeared to come through his spell without repercussion.