Chesham are playing with great confidence at the moment, having lost only one league game since the beginning of December and it showed against a makeshift Hendon defence missing Gary McCann, John-Simon White, Warren Kelly and Paul Towler. Andy Iga continued in goal while Jon Daly dropped back to centre-half in a four-man defence, with Jason McKoy, Freddie Hyatt and Marvyn Watson joining Davis Haule in midfield.

Iga made an uneasy start letting a ball slip out of his grasp in the opening 20 seconds and needing two attempts to deal with the resulting corner. Joe Nartey then shot wide from a good position.

Hendon came close to scoring against the run of play in the 12th minute. Haule made a break from midfield and, spotting Delroy Preddie a few yards off his line, tried a lob. The ball was dropping just under the crossbar, but Preddie did well to tip the ball away.

Four minutes later, a swift cross from Paul Scott was met by Paul Whitmarsh who timed his run perfectly to get in front of Marc Sinfield. Whitmarsh's flicked header left Preddie flat-footed on his line and the goalkeeper was grateful to see the ball flash just outside the far post.

Whitmarsh and Scott almost combined again after 21 minutes. This time Whitmarsh drilled a shot across the face of the Chesham goal but Scott did not gamble on his strike partner missing and ended a yard away from the ball.

Whitmarsh also fired a snap shot over from a good position. On this occasion, he needed a call advising him that he had time to control the ball before shooting.

Having weathered this early storm, Chesham again began to exert control, but the Generals were guilty of some poor finishing. After 32 minutes, Stuart Storer had a close-range header which he directed straight at Iga.

In the 36th minute, Scott showed some excellent pace to get in front of Chris Boothe, but had his heels clipped by the defender in the chase for the ball. Scott's impetus took him a yard inside the penalty area, although there was no doubt contact was a couple of yards outside the box. The yellow card for the challenge was correct - although Boothe said that it was a complete accident - as was the award of a free-kick. Hyatt struck the ball through the wall, but Preddie saved well by his near post.

Going downhill in the second half, Chesham took over the game. Former Hendon, Woking and England non-league international Dereck Browne dominated from the heart of midfield, sending probing passes down both flanks where Lee Allen and Storer enjoyed profitable afternoons.

The pressure told after 58 minutes. A corner eluded Iga and was palmed back to Terry BOWES, whose low shot lacked great power but had the accuracy to find the net just inside the post. Three Hendon players stopped as soon as they saw the Chesham player use his hands, but Mr Merchant, 10 yards from the incident, could not see it.

A minute later, Whitmarsh was released by a fine through ball. As he ran in on goal and drew his foot back to shoot, Boothe challenged him. The ball went in the direction Boothe was facing and the referee pointed to the corner flag. The assistant referee decided that it was a goal-kick and although the referee - who being behind play, could see both players - had a much better angle, he sided with his assistant.

Three minutes later, Hendon were two down. An errant pass in midfield from Haule sent Martin Fox on a run down the left wing. He passed inside and although Iga got a hand on the shot, BOWES had his second goal.

Dale Binns, Dominic Gentle and Mavuto Sakala replaced, Watson, Scott and Whitmarsh respectively, but got no joy out of the Chesham defence. Hendon's only shot at goal was when Hyatt fired another free-kick just wide.

Going forward, Chesham looked dangerous every time they attacked. They should have extended their lead in the 81st minute when Cliff Akurang was adjudged to have been brought down by a combination of Howard and Gary Fitzgerald, although the Hendon skipper seemed to knock the ball away. Bowes stepped up to complete his hat-trick but fired the penalty wide.

Three minutes later, Hendon got a lifeline when Haule tripped over Fox's stationary foot, planted a yard inside the penalty area. There was clearly contact, but Fox made no attempt to trip Haule. GENTLE eventually found the penalty spot in the morass of the penalty area and sent Preddie the wrong way with a confident strike.

With a minute to go, a diagonal pass from McKoy almost put Gentle in on goal, but Preddie was quickly off his line and his tackle dispossessed the Hendon substitute. Had the Greens scored, it would have been an outrageous stroke of luck to earn a point from the game.

"We didn't play well today, but we were down to the bare bones," said manager Frank Murphy. "We had to pull Jon Daly into defence and lost that little bit of edge in midfield."