Three goals in the final 20 minutes gave St Albans City a barely deserved victory and a margin that was totally out of keeping with this Ryman League Premier Division fixture at LOOT Stadium on Saturday.

For 73 minutes, a patchwork Hendon battled very hard against the 4th-placed St Albans, and were deservedly in a position to pick up a point. Saints had not played well either and the game had 0-0 written all over it. If the Greens' gritty play for four-fifths of the game merited some reward, their performance in the last 20 minutes did not.

Hendon's absentee crisis somehow managed to worsen after Thursday's training session as both Freddie Hyatt and Bontcho Guentchev went down with flu. This meant that, although Simon Clarke returned, 9 other players were unavailable and Frank Murphy had to name himself on the bench, along with two youth/reserve teamers, Nathan Edwards and Gary Johnson.

The first half had four incidents of note. After 16 minutes, John Pollard lashed a 25-yard free-kick that Andy Iga did well to tip over the crossbar for a corner. After 27 minutes, Curtis Warmington was cautioned for a late tackle. Ten minutes later, Andy Futcher was also shown the yellow card, this time for kicking the ball away.

In the 39th minute, Hendon almost took the lead. A Simon Clarke corner was headed goalwards by Jon Daly. Peter Risley attempted to clear the ball and succeeded only in diverting the ball over goalkeeper Noel Imber. His blushes were saved by Futcher, who headed the ball off the line.

The second half was better than the first - not a difficult feat. In the 49th minute, Chris Piper finished off a neat passing move by dragging a shot wide of Iga's right post. In the 53rd minute, Martin Randall escaped from his marker and met Chris Piper's cross. His attempt to glide a header just inside the near post, rather than making sure of a goal, resulted in abad miss.

Simon Clarke's crossing caused a number of problems for the Saints' defence. A free-kick just eluded Daly, who launched himself at the ball, and then bounced just a few inches beyond the far post with Imber a flat-footed spectator on his line.

Four minutes later, Bartholomew almost found the target with a side-footed flick from another Clarke cross. Imber's dive suggested he had the ball covered, but it was unconvincing.

In the 68th minute, St Albans withdrew Randall in favour of veteran Steve Clark and, unsurprisingly, it turned the game in Saints' favour. In the 73rd minute, Lenny Piper attacked down the right flank. He crossed the ball in low, where it was turned into the net by an unmarked Chris PIPER - Lenny's younger brother.

Within a minute, a mad scramble in the St Albans penalty area almost resulted in an equaliser, but Risley headed the ball off the line. Johnson replaced the struggling Dale Binns and Edwards then replaced Paul Scott, who had worked hard without ever managing a shot on target.

Manager Murphy was preparing to come on in the 83rd minute, when St Albans won a corner, taken by Dwayne Clarke. Iga dropped the ball, Steve CLARK had an easy tap-in for 2-0 and Murphy sat down again.

The second goal knocked all the stuffing out of Hendon, whose passing became poorer and poorer. The Saints defence, well marshalled by the Lee Harvey was untroubled in the final 15 minutes.

Just to add insult to injury, in the third minute of stoppage time, Steve CLARK tried a speculative 30-yard shot. It flew into the roof of the net with wrong-footed Iga watching helplessly.

"I have never known an injury crisis like this," said Mr Murphy. "We had nine players out today, so I had to name myself on the bench."