Hendon reached their sixth London Senior Cup final in 10 years with a 2-0 victory over Harrow Borough at Earlsmead, the Greens' landlords being the hosts. The Final will be on Thursday 7 May, at Imber Court, Metropolitan Police FC, with Tooting & Mitcham United providing the opposition (as they did at the same venue in 2008).

The Greens' exhausted squad showed a few changes, with Brendan Hazlett coming in for Danny McNicholas, Ollie Sprague for Charlie Goode and Peter Dean taking over from Kezie Ibe. Goode and Ibe were joined on the bench by Lee O'Leary, Scott Cousins and Adam Wallace, with Goode and Cousins not being used. When Kevin Maclaren dropped out just before kick-off the captain’s armband passed to Sam Flegg.

Harrow, whose Ryman League concerns are about keeping their status in the Premier Division, also rested key players ahead of their weekend contest at Leatherhead, but Charlie Goode, for what he thinks is the first time in his career, was the opposite side to his brother, former Hendon triallist No. 1 (he was on dual registration and didn't make a competitive first-team appearance) Ben Goode. Michael Barima, Michael Peacock, Michael Bryan and George McCluskey were other ex-Dons in the Borough 16.

This was a very strange encounter and, given both teams' patchwork line-ups, maybe unsurprisingly, the first-half lacked quality all over the pitch, especially in the finishing. Borough did have the ball in the Hendon net after 15 minutes, but Will Turl was ruled offside and his deft lob counted for nothing.

Dave Diedhiou mishit a clearance and was grateful to see the ball come back off the crossbar, while Hazlett made a good early save from Anthony Maissiat and a routine one from Dan Moody. Most of the Harrow shooting, however, lacked accuracy.

It wasn't all one-way traffic and Dean found himself in a one-on-one with Ben Goode. The goalkeeper won the battle, spreading himself well and blocking Dean's shot with his legs.

Then, just before the break, Aaron Morgan worked himself an opening and fired a shot towards the far post. Goode's dive was short of the ball, but it went just outside the post, to the home team's relief.

Before the second half kicked-off, Dean and Murray were replaced, the former still struggling with the toe injury he suffered after the League Cup final a week earlier. His dedication to the cause in making himself available was duly noted. Taking their place were O'Leary and Ibe but, more importantly, the management team changed the Hendon formation and they looked much more cohesive.

Five minutes into the half, Leon Smith broke clear of the Harrow defence, Goode came off his line and the goalkeeper again won the one-on-one situation, using his legs rather than his hands to deny the striker. Sprague then went on a long run, but his shot was easily gathered by the goalkeeper.

The warning signs for Harrow were clearly there, but they were ignored and Borough paid the penalty. When Morgan, Ibe, Smith and O'Leary all reached the penalty area, there weren't enough defenders and IBE pounced, shooting past Goode.

Hendon's lead should have evaporated within a couple of minutes. Julian Smith drilled a powerful drive past Hazlett but watched the ball bounce down off the underside of the crossbar. In the melee which followed, another two shots were blocked, with Harrow utterly convinced that Diedhiou's goal-line intervention from Turl had been with his hands.

If the referee had awarded a penalty, Diedhiou's evening's work would have ended there and then, but play was allowed to continue, much to the fury of the home-team fans, bench and players. It was a big escape for Hendon, but they, too, failed to heed the warnings because Borough struck the goalframe twice more, and managed to miss the target altogether from close range on a number of occasions. Hazlett also distinguished himself with some good saves and there was plenty of brave defending from blue-shirted players who threw themselves into the ball's path.

Wallace took over from Morgan midway through the second half, a couple of minutes after Harrow had introduced first choice attackers Marc Charles-Smith and Spencer McCall, at the expense of David Taylor and Julian Smith. They later sent on youth-teamer Jermaine Heron in place of Michael Bryan, whose contest with Sprague was compelling, but won by the Hendon defender.

With Harrow committed to attack, Hendon were content to launch their raids on the counter and Goode excelled himself with two more one-on-one victories against Leon Smith. When a chance fell to Ibe, the striker lifted the ball wide of the target with his right foot when the circumstances dictated a left-foot strike was the more likely to score.

It was harum-scarum in the Hendon penalty area on a number of occasions, while Andre Da Costa, freed from his right-back role, ensured that Barima's forays forward were limited. Unfortunately for Hendon, the pace and control of Da Costa and Roman Michael-Percil really didn't have the end-product they wanted.

However, when Barima delivered a cross into the Hendon danger area, in the last couple of minutes of normal time, Charles-Smith landed his header on the top of the crossbar. With a one-goal lead, Hendon players and fans couldn't breathe easily quite yet – but then Ibe made sure the Final place was the Greens'.

Peacock lost possession the half-way line and Hendon quickly attacked through Wallace, with Michael-Percil and Ibe in support. The ball to Ibe had just enough weight and the striker dinked the ball past the rushing Goode. This the time attempted kick-save made contact only with the face of Ibe, but there was no malice or intent, and Ibe got up a little sore but with goal number 26 of the season in record books.