Hendon picked up their first win of the 2025/26 campaign, and their first away competitive success since November 2025 with a deserved 2-1 FA Trophy success at Littlehampton Town.

In a match moved to a Sunday kick off due to cricketing commitments on the Saturday, Ben Bukowski gave a debut to Brazilian-born, Italian centre half Victor Ferrini, a signing from Step 5 club Athletic Newham. Meanwhile, Tahjae Anderson returned to the club and took his place on the bench having previously been with the club in the 2019/20 season.

Littlehampton had the better of the opening exchanges, showing plenty of life in wide areas and putting several dangerous balls into the box. However, the back three of Ferrini, Dave Diedhiou, and Tariq Straker snuffed out any danger.

The opening goal came on 19 minutes with Hendon's first real fluent attack of the game. Rohdell Gordon found Brad Dixon-Smith with a lovely weighted pass down the left flank. The left-sided wing-back took the ball into the penalty area where Keagan Cole arrived to slide the ball into an unguarded net.

It was the midfielder's first Hendon goal since his return, and his first in 7 years, 8 months, and 15 days according to the player's social media accounts.

The goal settled Hendon down, and they began to have the better of things. Sam Shaban was denied a goal by a truly outstanding save from Binfield in the home goal. Shaban's thumping header looked destined for the net before Binfield's tremendous stop at full stretch pawed the ball away for a corner kick.

Hendon had a goal chalked off from a corner for a foul on the goalkeeper. Indeed, several balls into the Littlehampton penalty area saw Hendon players penalised for perceived infringements which were far from obvious to the naked eye of most observers, nor the video camera behind the Littlehampton goal.

Littlehampton threatened on the break, particularly down the left hand side where Ferrini took a little time to adjust to the pace of an FA Trophy game. However, the final ball was often lacking, whether a shot or cross and the Greens survived.

That was until the final minute of stoppage time when a home corner was flicked on at the near post and tapped home by George Gaskin to level things up at the interval.

After the break, the game threatened to descend into a tit-for-tat battle. One challenge by Ferrini in which he went in robustly winning the ball was punished with a yellow card, while 60 seconds later, a scything challenge by Benjamin Hack rather lived up to the player's surname as he launched himself through the back of Shaban's knees at what looked like a dangerous height, only to receive the same punishment.

Hendon looked the more dangerous on the break, but too often overplayed in the final third, their lack of confidence in front of goal all too obvious. However, with 16 minutes remaining, they got in front again.

Cole picked the ball up just outside the penalty area and lofted an adroit ball into the path of Tobi Adaje. The right wing-back did brilliantly to bring the ball down before taking his time and picking a spot just inside the far post to give the Greens the lead.

Littlehampton worked hard to get themselves back on terms, but in truth, rarely threatened Josh Strizovic. Man of the match Dave Diedhiou made a sensational late covering block to protect the Greens' advantage, and Strizovic showed superb handling to collect a late free kick deliver into the box.

This came after the Greens squandered two or three promising looking openings on the break to make the game safe. However, after nine agonising minutes of second half stoppage time, the win was confirmed and Hendon fans were able to celebrate a rare win on the road.