Hendon advanced to the semi-final of the Middlesex Senior Cup after defeating Harrow Borough in an awful penalty shoot-out following a 1-1 draw in 120 minutes.

James Burgess, Harry Hunt, Glenn Garner and Sam Byfield were all rested from the 11 which had beaten Canvey Island on Saturday, with all but Hunt, suffering from a touch of flu, on the bench. Into the starting line-up came Danny Dyer, Brian Haule, Lubomir Guentchev and Sam Collins.

Kicking with a fierce wind and driving rain at their backs, it seemed that Hendon really needed to have a clear lead at half-time and they set about testing untried Harrow goalkeeper Richard McCabe.

He was clearly nervous, but that had little to do with Hendon’s goal after 20 minutes. A good cross from the left win invited a header from HAULE, and he made no mistake.

Two minutes later, an horrendous mix-up between Tobi Jinadu and McCabe gave Collins a clear shot at goal. The angle was very acute, it must be said, and Collins was a touch unlucky to see his curling effort hit the post and bounce away to safety.

Collins next effort, a trifecta of shots should also have brought a goal, but the result was two blocks and a save by McCabe, who gained confidence from this.

Harrow gradually started getting into the game with Gary Noel a constant thorn in Hendon’s side. The youngster had scored in three previous appearances against Hendon, all as a substitute, for Dulwich Hamlet twice before joining Borough, and it was no surprise that a well-placed low drive brought the teams level five minutes before half-time.

By this time, William Viner had made one very good save and another reasonable one to deny Jonathan Constant and Noel.

On the stroke of half-time, great work from Guentchev set up Haule with appeared to be a tap-in at the far post. The striker however, managed to put the ball the wrong side of the upright from a Hendon perspective.

The wind got stronger in the second half, but the Hendon performance improved even more so and although Viner had to make a couple of saves, McCabe also had to work hard.

The best thing that could be said of extra time was that it lasted only 30 minutes, because if it had gone on for six hours, it would probably have remained 1–1. Both teams missed chances and took the wrong options far too often. But the worst miss of the night came from Hendon Dave Diedhiou late in the second period.

So it was off to a penalty shoot-out, and both teams were embarrassingly poor. Three out of the ten efforts actually were kicked out of the ground, one other hit a post and another was missed. Between them, the goalkeepers made two and a half saves.

Guentchev converted the first kick, followed by the first lost ball, from Bobby Highton. Former Borough favourite James Bent had his effort saved and Viner did likewise facing Miles Jones, who had to retake his effort after striking the first attempt before the referee had blown his whistle.

Jamie Busby made it 2–0, before Viner was desperately unlucky to see his save from Danny Leech loop up in the air and get carried by the wind over the line. Had the kicks been taken at the other end, Viner would have had time to recover and complete the save. Lee O’Leary lost ball number two before Jinadu struck the right upright.

Glenn Garner, on for Haule, needed to convert to end the shoot-out, but he lost ball number three. It didn’t matter because Dewayne Clarke fired wide.

(Report by David Ballheimer, not to be reproduced without author's prior permission)