Hendon got 2002 off to a belated winning start with a 1-0 victory over Hampton & Richmond Borough at LOOT Stadium on Saturday. It was the Greens' 6th win in their last 7 senior competitive games against the Beavers, who have failed to score from open play against the Dons since January 1999.

On paper, the two teams were perfectly matched, with only 5 goals difference separating them in the Ryman League Premier Division table (Basingstoke were between them), although Hendon did have two games in hand. The sudden thaw at the end of the week arrived in time to make the pitch playable but, unsurprisingly, like a pudding.

Two of the previous week's substitutes, Mark Burgess and Dale Binns, came into the side in place of Micky Woolner and Byron Bubb, while Mark's brother, James was named substitute for the first time, alongside Eugene Ofori and Ross Pickett.

In the opening two minutes, Craig Maskell fired a free-kick just over David Hook's crossbar and Binns found himself cautioned for interfering at a free-kick. It was an harsh decision since Phil Dicker took the kick forward of where the offence took place and so quickly that Binns had little chance to move away.

Hendon's first chance of note came in the 9th minute and from it they scored. Binns appeared from almost out of nowhere on the left side and he tried a snapshot. The early strike caught Stuart MacKenzie unprepared and Binns' shot seemed likely to beat him. However, Leon WOODRUFFE intervened and he got the faintest of touches to ensure MacKenzie had no chance to make a save.

Both teams tried to play football on the difficult surface and the players who struggled most were the midfielders, all of whom - Steve Forbes excepted - struggled to find teammates with passes of any distance longer than half-a-dozen yards.

Binns was the most dangerous player on the pitch. He kept both Phil Dicker and Matt Flitter fully occupied with his darting runs and dangerous crosses. Unfortnately for Hendon, nobody could get on the end of them and a tight offside trap stifled other attacks at birth.

The one time the offside trap was beaten came in the 28th minute, when Forbes crept around the back of the Hampton defence and was in a great position. However, as he turned to face MacKenzie in a one-on-one, he slipped to the ground and the goalkeeper dived gratefully on the ball. Six minutes later, MacKenzie produced a magnificent reflex save to push over a screamer from Martin Randall.

Randall also came close when he latched onto a through ball from Forbes and curled the ball past the advancing MacKenzie, but it went into the side-netting on the outside of the goal.

Ofori replaced Woodruffe at half-time and he brought an entirely different threat to the Hampton defence. Although the second half had probably more chances than the first, for both teams, the finishing matched the overall quality of play - disappointing. Almost every opportunity came as a direct result of a mistake. Only when Binns ran at defenders did it ever look like an attacker was going to force the issue, but either his shot was wayward or a cross was cleared.

In the 73rd minute, Randall gambled on a backpass from Sam Sloma going short of MacKenzie. He nipped in and took the ball around the goalkeeper and had the perfect chance to open his Hendon account. Instead of steadying himself - it would have helped if a teammate had told him he had the time to look - Randall fired off-balance and the ball went the wrong side of the near post.

From the goal-kick, Hampton attacked and forced a couple of free-kicks on the edge of the Hendon penalty area. The first one was spilled by Hook, but the ball was cleared out towards the wing, where the next foul was committed. This time, Hampton could not capitalise. Mention must be made of the effective performances from Hendon's defence, with Steve Butler and Mark Cooper dominant in the middle, while Burgess and Clarke limited Hampton's supply from wide positions.

In the 77th minute, Hampton should have equalised when a spell of pressure drew the Hendon defence out of position and, when the ball was crossed in, Kelesi Ire was all alone 8 yards out. A straight header would surely have found the target, but the striker tried to be too careful and he could only manage a tame glancing effort that never troubled Hook.

A fine run by Binns set up a great chance for Paul Yates. He struck a perfect shot, in terms of technique - great balance, knee over the ball, etc. The only problem was that he was facing the corner flag when he made contact and that is just about where the ball ended up.

Hampton's attacks grew more and more desperate as the game drew to a close and it allowed both Binns and Ofori to make long runs. On one of them, into the corner, Binns was subjected a couple of frustrated kicks from Dicker, which earned the defender a caution.

"I reminded the players that after we had scored 6 against Enfield, we were terrible against Croydon," said manager Dave Anderson. "I said I did not want and repeat and, full marks to the players, they worked really hard for the result."