Hendon were made to work extremely hard for their FA Trophy first qualifying round victory over Ryman League Division One North pace-setters Lowestoft Town at Vale Farm on Saturday afternoon. Having sputtered most of the first 75 minutes the Greens only took control once they had opened the scoring.

Following the exhausting FA Cup replay at Ashford Town (Middlesex) on Tuesday, a few players were rested, James Reading, Wayne O'Sullivan, Lewis Ochoa and Danny Dyer, while Kevin Maclaren was suspended.

In came Berkley Laurencin for his first appearance of the campaign, Peter Dean, James Bent and new signings from Carshalton Athletic, Wes Daly and Scott Cousins - back with Hendon after a five-year absence. It meant that both of Hendon's goalscorers on Tuesday started the game on the bench.

In the second minute Gary McGee fired a shot at Laurencin and appeared to hurt himself in the process. To the relief of the band of noisy visiting supporters he was able to continue.

Dean should have given Hendon the lead in the sixth minute when a through ball put him clear on goal. With only Andy Reynolds to beat, he really should have done better than the tame effort straight at the goalkeeper, who saved easily.

Ten minutes later, Lowestoft's No. 9, Matt Nolan missed an equally good chance in almost identical circumstance. His shot beat Laurencin, but not the left upright and the ball was hastily cleared.

After that, at least for the remainder of the first half, both teams' central defences were on top. James Parker and Pat O'Donnell have quickly developed a good understanding and they kept Gary McGee and Nolan relatively quiet. At the other end, Yacine Hamada and Dean got no change out of the dominant Greg Crane and Matthew Halliday.

Efforts on target were few and far between. A shot from Lubo Guentchev - who had played a couple of games for the Trawlerboys as a teenager - did bring Reynolds to his knees, but it was not a particularly difficult save.

Lowestoft's Andrew Fisk had a long-range effort blocked by a stretching O'Donnell just before half-time, but half-time was reached with a replay in Suffolk looking a very strong possibility.

The first half hour of the second half only shortened those odds. Hendon were guilty of looking for the million-dollar ball when a perfectly good one could have been found for 50 cents and the wayward passes gave Lowestoft plenty of possession in good positions.

Bent did adequately in the right-back position, but he was not able to attack as much as Craig Vargas on the other flank, though this was probably because Cousins gave the latter far more defensive protection.

Daly struggled to make an impact, but Dave Diedhiou was again superb, not only breaking things up defensively but playing simple and effective passes going forward.

After 60 minutes, McGee fizzed a low drive past Laurencin but the ball flew just wide of a post. The goalkeeper then had to race out of his penalty area to deal with a through ball.

The first substitution came after 65 minutes when Christy Finch came on for McGee and it gave the Hendon a little respite. Seven minutes later, Hendon made a double switch, introducing O'Sullivan and Ochoa at the expense of Daly and Hamada. With the diminutive O'Sullivan now spearheading the attack it made the tactic of crossing the ball into the penalty area even more futile as Crane and Halliday never looked like losing an aerial challenge.

Nolan had another chance to give Lowestoft the lead after 73 minutes, but he shot just wide. Hendon attacked from the goal-kick and almost scored at the other end. Dean again worked himself a clear opening and, spotting Reynolds off his line, attempted a lob. He put too much power into the effort and the ball dropped harmlessly behind the goal.

However, Dean did become the creator for the opening goal after 77 minutes. His astute through ball found Guentchev, who skipped past Adam Smith to have a clear run at goal. Guentchev's powerful drive was too hot for Reynolds to handle and the goalkeeper could only palm the ball into the net.

Lowestoft, now chasing the game, ran the risk of leaving themselves unprotected defensively and it proved to be their undoing after 84 minutes. O'Sullivan attacked down the left wing, cut inside and slid a low pass to Guentchev, who shot against a post.

The ball rebounded to O'Sullivan who shot past Reynolds, only to find the covering Crane on the line. This time there was no reprieve for the Trawlerboys' as Diedhiou followed up and finished from deep inside the six-yard box.

Almost immediately, Lowestoft made their two final changes, taking off Jamie Godbold and Neil Plaskett and sending on Darren Cockrill and Matty Potter. Hendon countered by replacing Bent with James Burgess.

It was too little too late, and O'Sullivan very nearly added a third goal as the game moved into stoppage time. He will feel he should have scored, but the already unflattering scoreline would have been bloated to unfair levels had Hendon extended their advantage further.

"I thought the first half was pretty even and both managers would probably have been satisfied with the score at half-time," said manager Gary McCann.

"In the second half, I didn't think we were as good as we had been before half-time and when we scored our first goal, I thought we weren't the better team at the time. However, we did have the quality when it mattered.

"Scott Cousins and Wes Daly haven't played much in the past few weeks and they will need a bit time to adjust. But I now have the luxury of choosing from a big squad and there is a lot of quality there."