Hendon showed a resilience that has not always been obvious this season in coming from two goals down to earn a point against Tooting & Mitcham United at Vale Farm on Saturday. That said, with Harrow Borough, Ramsgate and Harlow Town all winning, and Margate drawing, a point was the absolute minimum Hendon required from their fixture.

Harry Hunt and Jamie Busby returned to starting line-up at the expense of Kevin Maclaren and Sam Byfield, who both dropped to the bench and Hendon fans were glad to see Mark Kirby on the bench after his nasty injury against Wealdstone last month.

In the fourth minute, Colin Hartburn saw his shot turned away by Will Viner while, at the other end, former Hendon 'keeper Dave King did likewise to deny Peter Dean his first goal for the Greens.

Poor defending gifted Tooting their first goal after 13 minutes. Aaron Goode tried his luck with a pot-shot from 20 yards out. The ball struck the foot of a post and as the defence looked on, it rolled back to GOODE, whose second effort went past the apparently unsighted Viner and into the net.

Viner was called into further action four minutes later as Hartburn’s goalbound back-post header needed saving.

Busby then had two good chances in five minutes to equalise. His first attempt beat King, but went the wrong side of the post from a Hendon point of view. King then produced a good save from the second effort.

Tooting’s direct style continued to cause Hendon problems, the pace of Michail Antonio being particularly troublesome. Marc Leach made one very good intervention when the slightest error of judgement would surely have ended his involvement for the afternoon.

But it all went wrong for the Greens four minutes before half-time. It came from a Hendon corner, which Dean took short to Danny Dyer. Rather than cross the ball himself, Dyer passed to James Bent was dispossessed just outside the Tooting penalty area.

In the centre circle, Antonio turned and started running downfield awaiting the inevitable outlet ball. It was perfectly placed and when Antonio controlled the pass, he was two yards clear of the covering Craig Vargas.

Viner came off his line, but did little more than slow down the striker. It did allow Vargas the chance to possibly reach the goalline to cover ANTONIO’s shot, but the Hendon defender was half a yard late and the ball ended up behind him.

Moments later a Dean free-kick invited a header at the far post but, indicative of Hendon’s first-half performance, there was no one there and the ball sailed out of play. A disappointed Dean looked towards the bench, where boss Gary McCann said, “Perfect height, perfect weight, all it needed was someone to come in at the far post.” A fan on the terraces suggested that it should have been Dean on the end of it.

At the interval, Hendon made two changes, Kevin Maclaren and Brian Haule replacing Dyer and Bent. And eight minutes after the resumption, the Greens were gifted a passage back into the game.

Hunt tried a shot from 15 yards out. It seemed to be going wide of the target but Andrew HOWELL, aware that Dean was making a run towards the ball, decided to clear the danger. He got his angles horribly wrong and succeeded only in finding the roof of his own net.

Within five minutes, both goalkeepers had made brilliant saves in one-on-one situations to deny the opposing No. 10. First Viner came off his line and didn’t fall for Antonio’s shimmy before pushing the ball away from the on-loan striker.

When the ball broke to the other end, Hunt should have equalised but his shot, although powerful, was too close to King, who pushed the ball aside and fell on it before the Hendon man could latch onto the rebound.

The next 15 minutes were rather unedifying. At least three players could have been dismissed, with a number of other possible candidates to joine them for early baths. In the event, no-one was sent off. The first offender was Hunt, who tried to atone for a piece of missed control but ended up lunging in. In the sriker's defence, it certainly wasn’t a malicious challenge but did look potentially dangerous.

A few minutes later, Vargas went in for a challenge on Hartburn. The referee decided it was a fair tackle and the Tooting player reacted with what appeared to be a slap. Vargas didn’t retaliate, and the referee lectured both players. Play resumed with an uncontested dropped ball, which the Terrors gave back to Hendon.

The worst challenge came from Lee O’Leary, which left a number of Tooting players incensed, notably Goode. O’Leary, like Hunt before him, was fortunate to see only a yellow card.

After those three incidents, the game was clearly on a knife’s edge, but cooler heads prevailed and there were no more reckless challenges. A mistimed tackle from Leach inflamed the Tooting bench, but it was certainly worthy of no more than a yellow card.

As the game moved towards its conclusion, Hendon upped the tempo and enjoyed a spell of concerted pressure. Busby and Hunt dallied too long and another chance went begging, and Sam Collins took the wrong option and had a great chance to cross or shoot when he cut inside Dean Hamlin. Instead, he took another touch and the danger was cleared.

With five minutes of normal time, the Tooting defence was again at sixes and sevens. This time, the ball was passed from Collins to Haule, who made the right choice from almost the same position Collins had occupied a few minutes earlier. His low cross was turned in by James PARKER for his first goal of the season. Haule, however, was injured in setting up the goal and had to be replaced by Lubomir Guentchev.

Only one team seemed likely to win the game from here, providing the Hendon defence didn’t fall asleep marking Antonio. Guentchev led one attack, but didn’t have the confidence to try to beat Goode and the rest of the Tooting defence was able shuffle the ball clear.

In the eighth minute of stoppage time – there were almost ten in the second half – Hendon should have been awarded a penalty. A chip into the penalty area saw Hunt lose his marker. With his back to goal, he controlled the ball on his chest, only for King – from behind Hunt – to attempt to gather the ball.

King got both hands on the ball, but couldn’t hold it and, as he tried a second time, his elbows – on Hunt’s shoulders – forced the striker to the ground. Hunt lay on the ground in great pain, as play continued. Once allowed to treat the player, sports theapist Mark Findlay exchanged words with the referee over the delay.

It proved to be the final incident of a match where the main topic of conversation was not Hendon’s great fightback but the nature of the second half. Certainly, Hendon’s very aggressive second half tactics were unlike most displayed by the Greens this season, but maybe there was a hint of justice that they didn’t take all three points.

Mr McCann said, “We were very poor first half and in the dressing room I made very sure the players were aware of my feelings. In the second half, our attitude and commitment was much better. A few times we did go too far and I will not condone some of the challenges.

“At 2.30, I would have been disappointed with one point; at 4.00 I would have been delighted with one. And it could have been more if a couple of decisions had gone our way.”

(Report by David Ballheimer - Not to be reproduced without the authors prior permission)