Hendon made their first appearance of the season at Claremont Road on Tuesday night and built nicely on their draw the previous Saturday at Heybridge with a 2-1 victory over Leyton.

Gary McCann fielded the same starting eleven as at Heybridge, whilst Leyton showed a number of changes in personnel from the squad that faced the Greens last season.

It was a damp, miserable night, much more like November than August, but both sides started in a lively fashion. The first chance fell to Hendon when Davis Haule found himself in space in front of goal, but could only fire wide of the target and shortly afterwards Leyton keeper Jamie Lunan was forced into a point blank save by a strike from Brian Haule.

Richard Wilmot was forced into action in similar vein when he held onto a fierce 20 yard drive from Sammy Winston as Leyton came into the game more and both Billy Hawes and Rio Alderton both saw efforts go wide of the goal.

Leyton continued to build the pressure as Hendon uncharacteristically went into their shell and in the 41st minute Wilmot did well to hold onto a Leyton free-kick. However, just three minutes later, Leyton took the lead through Solomon Henry who thumped the ball home from twelve yards. It was a deserved half-time lead against a lacklustre Hendon.

However, Hendon responded well in the second half and showed some real character, but Leyton almost extended their lead in the 48th minute when Wilmot plucked the ball off the head of Winston. Lunan was in action at the other end with a superb save from Ben Hudell four minutes later.

In the 63rd minute Wilmot made another good save and immediately released the ball to Wayne O’Sullivan, who in turn controlled the ball and played it into the penalty area. Lunan called for Hawes to head the ball clear, but the full-back only managed to head the ball into the air and it fell nicely for Hudell to slam the ball into the net for the equaliser.

The goal brought Hendon to life, and from there onwards it looked like there would only be one winner, and that was the men in green. In the 70th minute the Greens had a good chance to take the lead, but Aiteouakrim’s effort fell wide of the goal, whilst at the other end Leyton player/manager Roy Parkyn saw his 30 yard free-kick hit the woodwork.

With two minutes to go Hendon had what appeared to be a clear penalty shout denied when Lubo Guentchev was felled in the area by Ben Gracey. However, the Greens were not to be denied and in the final minute Davis Haule brushed off the challenge of Marc Cumberbatch and cooly slotted the ball into the net for the winner.

(Report by Steve Rogers - not to be reproduced without permission from the author)