Hendon completed a quickfire Ryman League Premier Division double over near neighbours Harrow Borough with a 3-1 victory at Vale Farm. It's not often a suspended player can prove to be a match-winner, but Glenn Garner achieved it as his work with a blow torch made the pitch playable after the cold snap had put the match in jeopardy.

The match was a near carbon copy of the game at Earlsmead a week earlier, with Borough controlling the opening half-hour and wasting a number of great chances before conceding just before half-time, just after the break and in the 82nd minute.

Garner was one of three players suspended - Dave Diedhiou and Kevin Maclaren were the others - while none of the injured Pat O'Donnell and unavailable Yacine Hamada and Wayne O'Sullivan were available for selection. On-loan signing Bradley Woods-Garness came into the team for his debut, replacing Diedhiou, in an otherwise unchanged starting line-up.

With Dewayne Clarke dropped to the bench, the best of the early chances fell to Rocky Baptiste, but he was no more successful than Clarke had been seven days earlier. He fired wide of the target, across the face of goal in the first 15 minutes before James Reading was called into action to deny Kwasi Frempong.

Although Dean Fenton caused Hendon a few problems, the Greens defence was able to deal with everything Harrow threw at them. James Parker - in his 200th Hendon appearance - and Bradley Thomas were assured, while James Burgess and Craig Vargas comfortably dealt with Kenta Nakashima and Fenton, respectively.

The closest Harrow came to breaking the deadlock was in the 27th minute when Baptiste spectacularly and languidly curled a 30-yard effort off the top of the Hendon crossbar with Reading a mere spectator. It was the wake-up call Hendon needed.

Five minutes later, Woods-Garness made a fine run into the penalty area and his shot, from 15 yards out, was pushed away by Keita Karamoko. The rebound fell to Scott Cousins but his follow-up was blocked by the sliding Richard Orlu. From the resulting corner, Thomas rose the highest of three Hendon players, but could not direct the ball goalwards.

In the 37th minute Hendon took the lead and Thomas again was heavily involved - although he didn't touch the ball. Another right wing corner was curled in by Cousins and Thomas went to attack the ball he stumbled onto the falling Danny McGonigle.

The midfielder was injured by Thomas's knees and while the Hendon player was helping his fallen rival on the edge of the six-yard box, directly in front of goal, the ball went back out towards the corner taker. Cousins improved his angle and fired a shot which Karamoko - probably put off by the commotion in front of him - failed to stop the ball as it went across him.

Two minutes into the second half, Cousins came close to doubling the advantage, but his shot flew just wide. Sixty seconds later, Hendon were fortunate to be awarded a free-kick just outside the Harrow penalty, but the wall did its job on this occasion. Two minutes later, from a similar set piece on the other side of the penalty area, the wall failed.

Cousins struck the free-kick well and it went just to the right of the endmost defender in the wall. Karamoko, however, was slow to get down to the ball and he ended up diving over it. Having failed to score since returning the Greens after almost five years away, Cousins suddenly had scored twice in 13 minutes of football.

Harrow soon introduced both Clarke and James Fraser at the expense of Frempong and Nakashima as they looked to get back into the game. The match went from end to end, but it was Hendon who looked the more dangerous in attack.

After 75 minutes, Woods-Garness made another dangerous run and his shot seemed destined for just inside the far post, until Karamoko made a magnificent diving save - not quite redemption for his two earlier errors, but it did keep Harrow in the match.

A minute later, both Woods-Garness and Burgess were replaced, by Lubo Guentchev and Danny Dyer, respectively, but this was a double switch that didn't work. Within 90 seconds of the changes, Harrow were back in the match. Fraser attacked down the left wing, crossed into the penalty area and when the ball was not properly cleared Fenton steered it into the net.

Hendon fans, used to seeing their team throw away winning positions in recent weeks, feared the worst, but they had no need to worry. It took them barely four minutes to restore their two goal advantage.

With Harrow over-committed to attack, a ball out of defence from James Bent released Guentchev. His control let him down slightly, but he still was able to get off a shot which Karakmoko half-saved. The ball rolled across the edge of the 18-yard box into the path on the onrushing Peter Dean and Casey Maclaren and it was the latter who beat Dean and the defending Wayne Walters to the ball before sliding it into the net, his fourth consecutive match with a goal.

Hendon soon made their final change, Lee O'Leary replacing Jamie Busby, but Harrow were somewhat demoralised by the third goal, so much so that the referee had to intervene to separate the arguing Fraser and Clarke before it escalated into something more serious.

Hendon manager Gary McCann said, "Once we had got through the first 15-20 minutes we were excellent. We played the conditions better than Harrow did, especially in the second half.

"Back-to-back wins are very important at this time of year."