Hendon opened up an 11-point gap between themselves and the pack chasing them and leaders Chelmsford City after a 4-0 demolition of Folkestone Invicta at Buzzlines Stadium on Saturday. It was possibly the Greens' finest overall performance since Gary McCann took over as manager 34 months ago.

The youthful starting line-up - the average age of the 10 outfield players was below 21, with Brian Haule and Marc Leach the veterans at 24 - was unchanged from the previous week's victory over East Thurrock.

Heavy rain left the pitch in a near-waterlogged state and strenuous efforts from the groundstaff throughout Saturday morning rendered the surface playable - but only just. And no matter how well it drained, heavy 15-minute showers at 50-minute intervals from 2.25 made the completion of the game in doubt until the final quarter of an hour.

Hendon kicked down the slope in the first half, with the benefit of the wind at their backs too. And truth be told, for all their near-total domination, they didn’t really make full use of these advantages, turning around at half-time with a solitary goal lead.

This wasn't for the want of creating chances, but a central free-kick was driven into the wall and long-range shots from Rakatahr Hudson, Jamie Busby and Wayne O'Sullivan all failed to find the target.

In the 19th minute, the first of a number defensive gaffes gave O'Sullivan a great chance to open the scoring, but he ran too close to Charlie Mitten before trying to lift the ball over the goalkeeper and he was able to block it with his legs.

Three minutes later, Hendon did have the lead. Again the defensive was lax in allowing players too much space and when Casey Maclaren tried his luck from 20 yards, a deflection caused the ball to loop against the foot of the left upright, spin forward against the diving body of Mitten and trickle over the goalline. The goalkeeper may well have struggled to reach the original shot without the deflection but he could do nothing about the carome off the post.

Once the first-half shower had abated, Hendon put together another of their stunning counter-attacks. It started with James Parker, who play a short pass outside to the wing from near to his penalty spot. Sam Collins took up the ball and fed Busby, who passed to the opposite wing where Scott Shulton showed greater commitment than his Invicta opposite number and won the ball at the second attempt, passing back to Sam Page.

Page immediately passed the ball down the left touchline and O'Sullivan took over. He ran around his defender and delivered a teasing cross which was headed out for a corner by Liam Friend, who did very well to beat Haule to the ball. As they waited to defend this set piece, two or three of the home defenders were blowing very hard.

Invicta enjoyed a good spell of possession ten minutes before the break, but they didn't look like creating a good opening and Richard Wilmot had little to do other than catch a couple of crosses and marshal the forces in front of him.

Before the second half started, Hendon put almost a year on the average age of the outfield team by withdrawing Maclaren, who had picked up a yellow card for a careless challenge just before the break, with James Burgess. Even with this reshuffle, Hendon didn't miss a beat.

In fact, going uphill they were even more dangerous and just five minutes into the second half, they doubled their advantage. Although the assist will go to Marc Leach, credit should also be handed to Haule.

It was the striker who chased down a backpass and forced Mitten to clear more hurriedly than he wished. The result was a shortish kick, which Leach returned by means of a 35-yard header that split open the home defence.

Fastest to react was O'Sullivan, who sprinted clear and, this time, tried an earlier shot. Mitten tried to get down to make the save, but the ball was just about under and past him when he got a touch.

At this point the second half shower began and it was, for 15 minutes, extremely fierce. In a close game, or maybe a local derby, the referee may have decided enough was enough - the ball had long ceased to roll in a 15-metre square area in front of the Folkestone penalty area - and brought proceedings to a halt.

He didn't and Hendon profited, first defensively, then going forward. A spell of pressure from Invicta gave Ellis Remy a good chance and his powerful drive beat Wilmot all ends up. The ball however, struck the inside of the right post, rolled along the goalline, struck the opposite post and was on its way back to the other post when Leach hacked it clear.

Just how bad the condition had become were clear when Hendon made it 3-0 after 61 minutes. Haule was sent clear by a through ball from Busby and was a good five metres in front of the nearest defender when he encountered the marsh. He almost lost the ball and his clear advantage over the defender, but did just enough. As Mitten came off his line, Haule lifted the ball over him and ran away in celebration as the ball hit the back of the net.

If Haule had been denied that goal by the pitch, there could have been little argument over the pitch's playability. While players may not have suffered much in the way of injury, there must have been a fear of drowning.

As a contest, the game was now completely over and it was a matter of how many more Hendon would get. It turned out to be only one, a beautiful finish by O'Sullivan after 81 minutes, set up by substitute Lubo Guentchev, who had just replaced Haule. Four minutes later, Danny Dyer came on for Busby.

He only had ten minutes on the pitch, but Guentchev absolutely terrified the Folkestone defence. Able to keep his feet and control the ball without difficulty, he led them a merry dance and, with seconds to go, should have made it 5-0. Instead, he passed to O'Sullivan, who was denied a hat-trick by a fine save from Mitten.

"We're growing in stature week by week," said manager Gary McCann, "and it is beginning to look like we're not just hitting above our weight. Our target is still 48 points, but we will soon have to look forward and see just how far we can go."

(Report by David Ballheimer - not to be reproduced in any form without the author's agreement)