Hendon defied the odds to produced the perfect away performance and come away from their longest away-day journey of the campaign to an ideal start at title favourites, Truro City, at Plymouth Parkway's Bolitho Park ground.

Shorn of half a dozen likely starters, Lee Allinson's patched up side contained no fewer than six debutants, one of whom had been playing at Step 4 last season and two at Step 5.

The much fancied hosts, playing more than an hour from their home city, began in the manner of pre-season hosts and had a couple of early chances, one of which from Harvey hit Lucas Perry on the line before rebounding into the hands of Fred Burbidge. Dangerous wing-back Niall Thompson also headed one over the top from a good position.

It was against the run of play that the Greens took the lead on 10 minutes. A long clearance from Burbidge should have been dealt with by the Truro defender, however his mis-control saw Wilson Carvalho nip in to pinch the ball off his toe and race in on goal. Picking his spot the Portuguese winger, shoved into service up front, fired low across James Hamon and into the bottom corner of the net.

The visitors then had to weather a storm for the remainder of the opening period as the White Tigers looked to get back on terms. There were plenty of balls into the box, notably from the left flank, however the Hendon back three stood firm and when the ball did fall to a white shirt, more often than not the finish failed to hit the target. Burbidge remained relatively untroubled.

The match crashed out of the home side's hands in six second half minutes around the hour mark. Firstly the home side failed to clear a corner kick and as the ball fell to the feet of Christian Smith, the midfielder fired a left-footed shot goalward that took a deflection off a white shirt leaving Hamon helpless as the ball hit the back of the net.

Four minutes later a counter-attack saw Shaun Lucien break across the halfway line at pace before solling a perfectly weighted pass into the path of Carvalho. This time the winger shot first time with the same result as earlier, Hamon beaten and the ball finding the bottom corner.

The rout was completed midway through the second half when the impressive Hamza Semakula led another counter attack before feeding Jayden Clarke, just on as a substitute. His first touch was a shot that was well blocked whilst his second was to turn Lucien's low cross into the net having got back to his feet swiftly.

The shell-shocked hosts were beaten and Hendon were able to see the final quarter of the game out with comfort.