Hendon showed great heart and grit to earn a point against another of their playoff rivals with a 2-2 draw against Beaconsfield Town. In back-to-back games, the Greens have ensured a chasing team did not close the gap on them and have come away with a point.

After a very long trip at the weekend Hendon freshened up the team, with injured Bayley Brown an obvious absentee, but Connor Calcutt and Cole Brown both dropped to the bench. Prince Mbengui, Gianni Crichlow and Ricardo German were the three to step into the starting line-up.

All plans for the game were wrecked inside three minutes when Romario Jonas went down with an injury. For three minutes, the team played with 10 men, Sean Bonnett-Johnson dropping back to bolster the defence and when Taishan Griffith came on, Howard Hall switched to the centre of defence.

Beaconsfield were quick to capitalise and Charlie Losasso had a couple of shots blocked before former Hendon player Mayowa Balogun fired wide. Then, having done almost nothing in attack, Hendon took the lead in the 18th minute.

A through ball found German chasing with Reece Yorke near the corner of the penalty area when debutant goalkeeper Sam Mason tried to win the ball. German beat both to the ball, cut inside and shot past the retreating Yorke.

Five minutes later, the lead was almost doubled when a driven cross from Shaquille Hippolyte-Patrick went across the face of goal and German, sliding in, was desperately close to getting a touch to divert the ball into the net.

The equaliser arrived after 28 minutes and there was more than a hint of good fortune about it. A free-kick 30 yards out was blocked and the rebound was driven goalwards by Louis Stead.

The ball came off the crossbar and fell to the feet of Jordan Ajanlekoko and he could not miss from two yards out. Hendon's bench felt Ajanlekoko was offside and he was clearly in front of the last defender when the ball arrived at his feet - however, it was hard to see if he was in that position when Stead struck the ball.

Just before half-time, Hendon were awarded a free-kick on the edge of the Beaconsfield penalty area. Shaun Lucien and Lee Chappell stood over the ball and it was the former who struck it.

It was a sweet strike and Mason was well beaten. The ball, as with Stead's earlier effort, cannoned off the frame of the goal, but the rebound was unkind to Hendon and Beaconsfield were able to clear the danger.

Less than a minute later, Beaconsfield were in front. The raid came down their left side and too many defenders committed themselves to deal with the danger so when the cross from Bajram Pashaj came over, no Greens defender was on hand to stop Brendan Matthew from nodding into the net from close range.

Hendon had been poor in the first half, but they were much better after the break; that said, the Greens could easily have conceded half a dozen goals in the second period. In the space of four minutes between the 53rd and 57th, there could have been four goals, two for each team.

First Lucien and Hippolyte-Patrick combined and, when the ball came into the danger zone, German almost applied a finishing touch. Seconds later, Stead was played clear, but he was denied by a good one-on-one save by Danny Boness. Back at the other end, Lucien and German again went close to combining for a goal.

Two minutes later, Matthew took the ball around Boness, but Chappell got back to make a superb tackle with the empty net gaping. Boness then made a routine save from Stead after a free-kick was only partially cleared.

Calcutt and Cole Brown came on for Lucien and Crichlow as Hendon made their last changes, while Beaconsfield sent on Anthony Mendy for Matthew. Two long-range Hendon shots forced saves from Mason, the first was easy, lacking in great power albeit low, the second had much greater force but the ball was struck almost straight at him.

Ill-disciplined running from Rams forwards caught them out on a few occasions and one of them came when the ball was rolled into the net. Pashaj and Stead then launched a double raid with the former being stopped by Boness and the latter firing over the bar.

With 6 minutes to go, Hendon got the equaliser. Brown and Griffith attacked down the right and, as with Beaconsfield's second goal, central defenders were too busy worrying about the ball and not the men in the middle. When Griffith crossed German smashed the ball into the net off the underside of the crossbar for his 18th goal in just 21 games.

From the restart, Hendon lost concentration, but from a great attacking position, the Rams could not capitalise. The game became almost crazily open and chances came at both ends, with ones going towards Boness far more threatening.

A goalline clearance from a green-shirted defender denied Beaconsfield a goal, but a Rams striker could and should have got to the ball first, choosing to watch rather than intervene. At the other end, a couple of balls into the danger were hastily cleared, one of which seemed destined for German.

In the three minutes of added time, Mendy was just beaten to the ball by Boness, who appeared to be a sweeper-keeper. The substitute then had a header which he failed to put on target.

Manager Jimmy Gray admitted Hendon may have been fortunate to get a point, saying, "We did get away with it today. Losing Romario so early was a big blow and I wonder if it had anything to do with the trip on Saturday. But I am happy that we picked up a point."