Hendon had few, if any alarms, in disposing of a troubled Tooting & Mitcham United at Imperial Fields on Saturday afternoon. The 3-0 victory lifted the Greens back into the playoff places, while the Terrors, who parted company with manager Mark Beard at the start of the week and had their youth team manager in charge, are looking nervously over their shoulders at the relegation zone.

There were quite a few changes to the team which had eventually seen off Uxbridge in Tuesday night’s Middlesex Senior Cup tie, with Frank Sinclair, Scott Cousins, Ryan Wharton, Darren Currie and James Fisher all returning to the starting line-up. The bench was significantly stronger, too, made up of James Archer, Elliott Godfrey, Michael Peacock, Greg Ngoyi and Carl McCluskey.

Almost from the kick-off, Hendon set the pace with Tooting's inexperienced team struggling to cope with the industry of Kevin Maclaren, Jamie Busby and Fisher, while the width provided by Jerome Federico and Cousins required forward players to drop back to help the overworked full-backs.

Elliott Charles, effectively a lone striker, was more than enough for Osa Obamwoyi and Jensen Grant to deal with, and, from about 10 minutes into the match, it was a matter not whether Hendon would score, but when. Desperate defending by the Tooting rearguard did just enough for more than half an hour to delay the inevitable, but their good fortune would have to run out sooner rather than later.

A brilliant piece of one-touch interplay down the left side by Cousins and Currie tore open the Terrors after 24 minutes and the cross from the skipper Cousins took out both the goalkeeper and Obamwoyi. Unfortunately, for Charles, just beyond the far post, he could not direct his header on target, and the chance went begging.

Tooting's best opportunity came after 31 minutes. A hopeful ball to the edge of the penalty area was claimed by Berkley Laurencin, but the goalkeeper felt he was about to step outside the penalty area, so he dropped the ball after colliding with Kofi Lockhart-Adams.

The striker, on loan from Barnet, turned on the loose ball and lobbed it towards the goal. Wharton was back covering and might have been able to deal with the danger if the shot had been goalbound. It wasn't and the ball bounced a yard or so wide of the near post. It would be the closest the Terrors came to scoring all afternoon.

After their escape, Hendon ramped up the pressure and took the lead eight minutes before half-time. A hurried clearance brought the Greens a corner, from which Charles, perfectly placed inside the six-yard box, was able to rise and head into the unguarded net. Goalkeeper Jack Giddens complained he had been fouled or at least obstructed as the ball came in, but the referee - perfectly positioned - told him that the Hendon man had been in front of him and done nothing other than rise to head the ball home.

Before the start of the second half, Tooting replaced Lockhart-Adams with a former Barnet striker Charlie Stimson, but he found Sinclair and Wharton too much to deal with and his partnership with Ashley-Paul Robinson proved to be fruitless.

That said, the Terrors did enjoy their one spell of domination in the first 15 minutes of the second half. Hendon conceded a couple of careless free-kicks on the edge of their penalty area, but were not punished for them. One move might have brought a goal, but the shot at its end was well struck, but wide of Laurencin's goal.

Hendon might have doubled their lead after 53 and 60 minutes when first Busby, then Maclaren had good shooting opportunities. Both players, however, failed to hit the target and Tooting breathed again.

Midway through the half, Busby was withdrawn. Having missed six weeks with a broken cheekbone, had played the equivalent of two full matches in four days and probably needed the rest. Ngoyi replaced him, giving the Greens two out-and-out strikers, something Tooting simply could not deal with.

Four minutes after coming on, Ngoyi made the game safe for Hendon. Good approach play involving Fisher, Maclaren and Parker saw Federico receive the ball in space. He got around the back of the home defence, leaving Terry Lee Fennessy trailing in his wake, and delivered a low cross to the near post.

Standing alone was Ngoyi, whose strike was hardly the cleanest of his career, but it did send Giddens diving to his right as the ball went past him to the left. If a little bit fortunate for Hendon it was nothing if not completely deserved.

Hendon's third goal may just be one of the Greens' goals of the season - and would undoubtedly have been a contender if a green-shirted player had applied the coup de grace. Instead, after Currie, Cousins, Maclaren, Charles, Fisher and Parker had ripped open the Tooting defence with superb first-time passing, Federico ran in at goal.

He saw both Ngoyi and Charles unmarked in the six-yard box, though a shot was an equally valid option. His low ball ended up just inside the far post netting, however, because the late recovering Fennessy had diverted the ball past his own goalkeeper. Federico's attempt might just have crossed the goalline, but it would have been closer to the corner flag than the six yard box, so he really can't get the credit for what would have been his first Hendon goal.

Charles and Federico were then withdrawn, in favour of Godfrey and Archer, respectively, as Hendon coasted to victory. A good save by Giddens denied Ngoyi a second goal and Archer and Godfrey were both off target with further shots. Tooting, by this time, were in full damage limitation mode and the final whistle brought them a merciful release at the end of a trying afternoon.

"It was our most thorough performance of the season," said a delighted Hendon manager, Gary McCann. "Our ball retention was excellent and the passage of play leading up to our third goal was outstanding.

"A number of our players have come back from injury and we are back close to where we want to be. Our bench today was probably as strong as it has been all season. I have set the players a number of targets and if I can choose from a strong squad every week, I am hopeful of achieving them."