Hendon's last-gasp winner against Horsham at Worthing on Saturday, Peter Dean scoring in the 90th minute, came at a huge cost with influential midfielder Lee O'Leary suffering a triple-break of his leg in a freak accident.

There was only one change to the starting line-up from the team which beat Ramsgate a week earlier, fit-again Harry Hunt returning in place Glenn Garner, who was on the bench with the returning Brian Haule and Lubomir Guentchev. Sam Byfield and Danny Dyer missed out on the 16.

On a sunny afternoon, chilled by a breeze off the English Channel, Hendon went behind after just five minutes, when Horsham scored from their first attack. A defensive clearance fell only to Darren Budd outside the penalty area.

Budd controlled the ball and struck a powerful dipping volley which bounced just in front of William Viner. The goalkeeper could only parry the ball into the ground, but it bounced up and hit the underside of the crossbar. Any arguments whether the ball had already crossed the line became moot when Claude Seanla smacked it into the empty net.

Although Seanla was announced as the goalscorer, following the match, credit for the goal was given to Budd.

Within 40 seconds, Jamie Busby came within a foot of making a goal in six consecutive matches when he whistled a drive just to the left of a post with Rob Tolfrey beaten but confident the effort was not on target.

The goalkeeper showed similar confidence was a shot from Sam Collins after 12 minutes was equally close to the right post. When forced into action, Tolfrey made an excellent save palming the ball aside as Hunt came beat his marker, Hornets captain and former Hendon favourite Sam Page, and had an albeit brief clear sight of goal.

Hendon continued to dominate the first half without quite finding the right pass to unlock the home defence. Page was superb in his handling of Hunt and every other hint of danger was cleared unfussily by Anthony Acheamopong.

It seemed that Hendon would go into half-time trailing, but they got an equaliser less than a minute from the whistle. A foul on Collins by Yinka Salaam gave the Dons a free-kick half a dozen yards outside the penalty area.

With a large wall built expecting to defend a shot from either Busby, Collins or O'Leary, Hendon instead went for a different move. Dean's first effort was blocked by a defender's outstretched leg, but the ball went straight back to Dean.

The second shot was not only more powerful, it was more accurate, too, and Tolfrey was forced into making a save. Even though he was slightly hampered by a groin injury, the goalkeeper should have done better than just pushing the ball aside with little power.

Craig Vargas followed up and his goalscoring chance was only harder than Seanla's had been because he was maybe two yards from the goal. However, as there were equally few obstructions, Vargas made no mistake.

Horsham officials were very unhappy with their team's first half performance and the Hornets came out for the second half determined to improve. Tolfrey made a fine save from a superb drive from O'Leary as Hendon continued to set the pace, but they were held more in check as Russell Eldridge grew in influence.

Still not happy with the way the game was going Horsham manager John Maggs made a double switch after an hour, taking off Tony Nwachukwu and Reggie Savage and bringing on Williams Peauroux and Steve Davies.

Ten minutes later, Garner replaced the tiring Hunt as the Hendon attack replaced a rapier with a bludgeon. Coincidentally this signalled the first real period of Horsham domination, though the Hendon defence, with James Burgess, James Parker, Mark Kirby and Vargas all performing exceptionally well with timely interventions where necessary, was not unduly stretched.

With around ten minutes to go, Hendon suffered a huge blow when they lost O'Leary. The midfielder jumped for a ball with Mark Knee and the players clashed heads. According to those treating O'Leary, they said that he was momentarily knocked out in the collision and thus could not break his fall as he landed. Tragically, all the weight came down on one leg which buckled under the pressure causing the three breaks.

O'Leary's agony was clear to hear and he was stretchered off to the dressing room before being transferred initially to Worthing hospital, where x-rays confirmed the diagnosis.

Back on the pitch, Brian Haule came on and he almost immediately had a half-chance, but the hard, bouncy pitch meant the ball bobbled away from him.

Three minutes from the end of normal time, Horsham suffered a serious injury of their own. Garner made a whole-hearted challenge on Page and the ball clearly came off the Hendon player. Page, however, was caught in the challenge and he was helped off the pitch with what was feared to be ligament damage. His replacement, Ian Payne, lasted barely five minutes because he limped off with a hamstring injury.

From the restart following Page's injury, Horsham almost scored the winning goal. Tolfrey launched a long kick downfield and when the ball came in from the right wing, Gary Charman arrived at the far post and beat Viner with a header. The ball struck the top of the crossbar and bounced away for a goal-kick.

Viner's goal-kick was helped on by Kevin Maclaren, who found Busby. As Busby ran purposely forward, Knee moved in to block his path. Dean, suddenly free of a defender screamed for a pass and received one, although it was further in front of him than he really wanted.

It, however, turned out to be a match-winning pass because Dean was forced to hit the ball first-time and go for goal. Both Knee and Tolfrey were closing in on Dean as he struck the ball and they watched in horror as the ball struck the inside of the far post, rolled along the goalline and into the goal inches away from the opposite post.

Thirty seconds later, Tolfrey made a fine save to deny Garner a goal, his lob not being struck quite well enough to clear the goalkeeper.

The multitude of injuries suffered in the second half ensured that stoppage time stretched to 15 seconds short of 10 minutes, but Hendon never really looked like conceding in that period.

"We dedicate this victory to Lee O'Leary," said manager Gary McCann. "We played very well from the sixth minute to the 99th today and thoroughly deserved the victory. But the injury really does take the gloss off the win."