Hendon reached the second qualifying round of the FA Cup, with a most unimpressive victory over Marlow at the Alfred Davis Ground on Saturday. If Marlow had capitalised on the numerous Hendon errors in the way that the Greens pounced on the first bad blunder by a Blues defender, then it would have been the Southern League club who would have advanced.

There were three changes to the Hendon line-up for the game. New signing Patrick O'Donnell, Dave Diedhiou and Lubomir Guentchev started the game in place of Sam Berry, Wayne O'Sullivan and the unavaiable Marc Cumberbatch. Berry and O'Sullivan were named on the bench alongside James Burgess, Jamie Busby, Glenn Garner, Casey Maclaren and Berkley Laurencin.

Hendon's passing game, especially in the first half was very wayward and frequently ill-judged. And when, in the seventh minute, Alex Cairns collected a loose pass from Diedhiou, his first-time through ball released Johnny Isaac.
The forward had only James Reading to beat, but the former Wycombe youngster - who played at Oak Tree Road numerous times when the Chairboys played home matches at the ground - pulled off a superb save with his legs.

Jon Case then failed to take advantage of a good chance, firing over the bar. Guentchev and Harry Hunt both fired wide for Hendon, but raids by the Greens were sporadic and easily dealty with by Mark Avery and Gavin Lane.

However, in the 18th minute, a poor pass by Lane was miscontrolled by Jeff Lamb and Yacine Hamada pounced. Hamada took the ball forward and ran past Hunt, calling his team-mate not to touch the ball, and ran into the penalty.

The assistant referee on the far side of the pitch saw Hunt in an offside position and briefly raised his flag, lowering as soon as he realised Hunt was not interfering with the attack. Lamb, however, made a clumsy challenge on Hamada, bundling over the striker.

The referee had no hesitation in awarding a penalty. A couple of Marlow players protested, but meekly and were waved away by the official. James Bent needed two attempts to place the ball on penalty mark, but once he was happy with the way it sat on the turf, he struck an almost perfect kick, giving Kieron Drake no chance, even though he guessed correctly.

A silly challenge on the edge of the Hendon penalty area gave Alex Stewart a great shooting chance after 24 minutes. Reading, once again, came to Hendon's rescue with a fingertip save.

Hendon's second effort on target came from Kevin Maclaren, but he had two teammates better positioned and his strike was directly at Drake, who saved easily. The goalkeeper was grateful, however, to see a swerving drive from Diedhiou, first time and from a very acute angle, bend just too late to catch the inside of the far post.

The better chances were still going to Marlow and Reading made two more excellent interventions before the interval. First he went to his right to push aside a drive from Isaac, then he plunged low to his left to keep out a goalbound effort from Alex Cairns that was creeping just inside the near post.

Inside the Hendon dressing room at half-time, the management team made the players all too aware of their short-comings in that opening period. It had the desired effect, because Hendon were far better, although it would be fairer to say they were less bad. In particular Bent stepped up and took control of the midfield, especially keeping Marlow skipper Chris Elsegood - a Blue Square South player at Hampton & Richmond Borough 18 months ago - quiet.

That said, the scores should have been level three minutes into the second half when a Stewart White delivered a low cross to the feet of Stewart, barely five yards from goal, directly in front, and with nothing between him and an equaliser. Quite why he felt he needed a touch to control the ball before shooting is a mystery - and his first touch directed the ball back towards the touchline, from where he was unable to fashion a shooting opportunity.

Bent forced Drake into making a save before Hunt wasted a great opportunity to double the Hendon lead. Peter Dean's through ball released him and although he was able to push the ball wide of Drake, it didn't sit for him and his next touch rolled the ball wide of the goal.

Hendon were beginning to enjoy much more freedom down their left flank and a couple of crosses from Craig Vargas almost brought reward. And Mark Kirby almost connected with a corner delivered by Dean.

With 16 minutes to go, Hendon made the first change, withdrawing Hamada in favour of the more direct Garner. Within four minutes, he should have scored when Drake and Avery did just enough to put off Dean, but Garner went for extreme power rather than placement and almost felled a Hendon supporter standing just outside the line of the post. After a few moments of self-abuse under his breath, Garner had the grace to apologise to the fan he had discomforted.

A minute later, Hendon made the game safe. A goal-kick by Reading was helped on by Guentchev, giving Hunt a second one-on-one with the Drake. The goalkeeper made an excellent parry of Hunt's shot.

He was, however, a helpless spectator as Garner was first to react to the loose ball This time, Garner went for placement ahead of power and it was 2-0.

Hendon manager Gary McCann said, "It was a cup-tie so the result is the most important thing and we are in the next round. But we really didn't play well. Our passing was very poor and we made too many mistakes.

"James Bent and Kevin Maclaren really stepped up in the second half and took control of the midfield. But it was James Reading who kept us in the match.

"This was a game you put in the vault and don't look at again, unless we make it to the first round of the FA Cup."