Hendon closed the gap on second-placed Carshalton Athletic to just 2 points with a thoroughly deserved victory at Colston Avenue on Saturday afternoon. In addition, the Greens improved the gap between them and the 4th and lower placed clubs to 2 points.

Marien Ifura was recalled by Queens Park Rangers (and sat on the subs bench for them at Brentford, so Hendon risked Steve Butler in his place. It was Butler's first game for the first team for more than 10 weeks, after just a couple of reserve team runouts. The other changes were on the subs' bench where Ricci Crace and Andre Delisser came in for Jon-Barrie Bates (flu) and James Burgess (food poisoning).

Carshalton kicked off defending the bottom of the slope, their preferred end for the first half, but were on the back foot immediately. They struggled to deal with the runs of Dwayne Plummer and Steve Forbes from midfield, the height of Andy Cook and Pat Gavin and the all-round movement of Eugene Ofori.

It was no surprise when in the 14th minute, the defence was breached. Romauld Bouadji was pressured into a sliced clearance that sent the ball out for a corner. Scott Cousins curled the ball in towards the near post, where Gavin got in front of Mark Costello and flicked it on. OFORI was quickest to react and he scored from 6 yards out.

Mark Hawthorne had already been fortunate not to receive a yellow card for a late challenge on Forbes, but Costello soon transgressed in similar vein - also on Forbes - and this time Sean Pryor produced the yellow card. By the half-hour mark, Forbes had found his way into Mr Pryor's notebook for a clumsy and late challenge.

Hendon's domination was such that they twice won free-kicks on the edge of the penalty area, but instead of setting up something, a quick pass was attempted, only for somebody to be caught offside ruining any chance of a goal.

Gavin tested Stuart Searle's gloves with a stinging 20-yard drive after 35 minutes before Forbes pressed the self-destruct button and got himself sent off. He tangled with Colin Hartburn and unwisely and uncharacteristically allowed the incident to develop further.

If there had been nothing untoward in the previous 30-odd minutes, Mr Pryor would probably have contented himself with a lecture to both players without further sanction. However, with challenges flying in, he had to produce yellow cards for both players, so Forbes got a red one too.

Almost immediately, Dave King produced a magnificent save to keep out a flying header from Dale Marvell. It was Carshalton's first effort of note, tribute to the way Butler eased his way back into the back three, alongside Mark Cooper and Antony Howard.

Just before half-time, Iain Duncan came close to doubling the Hendon lead. Carshalton defenders again dithered as the ball rolled harmlessly parallel to the penalty area 25 yards from goal. Duncan realised he had a chance to reach it and, spotting Searle off his line, tried an audacious lob that bounced on the top of the net. Had he been kicking up the hill, the ball would probably have dropped under the crossbar.

With the slope and an extra player as advantages, the Robins must have been confident about retrieving their deficit. Kunle Olusesi came on for Ali Russell to add more direct running to the Carshalton effort, but it was Searle who was first to rescue the team. He produced a superb save to keep out a shot from Plummer.

Gavin and Ofori, hard workers before the break, redoubled their running and harrying in the second half. Ofori popped up in the right back position on one occasion and even had the guile to win a throw-in by kicking the ball of Landry Zahana-Oni's shins.

The game's decisive incident arrived in the 67th minute, 5 minutes after Crace had replaced the exhausted Gavin. Cooper tried to harass Olusesi into an error on the halfway line, directly in front of the dugouts. He got too close to the substitute and pushed him over.

Olusesi reacted by lashing out at Cooper, who went to ground. Duncan ran in to intervene. Mr Pryor showed Duncan a yellow card and Olusesi a red, thus reducing both clubs to 10 men. Instantly the pendulum swung back Hendon's way.

In the 71st minute, Hendon forced another corner, this time taken by Plummer. It was perfectly weighted for COOK to rise and head the ball home, through the legs of Searle. The goalkeeper probably couldn't have done much about the header, but the home management team were more concerned about his decision not to come for the ball in the first place.

Almost immediately, Dale Binns came on Ofori, who was cheered to the rafters by the noisy band of Hendon supporters behind the goal. But it was the other substitute, Crace, who set up the next goal.

Crace worked himself in front of 3 Carshalton defenders and Des Boateng wrapped his legs around Crace's, sending him to the ground. It was as clear-cut a penalty as can be imagined. COUSINS claimed seniority over Plummer as the spot-kick tacker and he confidently sent Searle the wrong way.

The only disappointment of the second half was the goal claimed by Matt YORK, on his 150th appearance, 3 minutes from the end of normal. In truth, it didn't take much gloss off the performance but the defending was, for the only time, a little sloppy.

"I am delighted with the way that we worked today," enthused manager Dave Anderson. "We passed the ball brilliantly for the first half hour and then showed another side of our game when we went a man down."