Wingate & Finchley ended a run of five defeats with a much-needed 2-0 win at home to VCD Athletic in the Ryman Premier Division.

Barnet’s Iffy Allen, on loan at Wingate, looked a threatening presence from the start on Saturday and began the half creating chances – joined on the right flank by Mark Goodman.

However, the home side’s first notable effort came from the left hand side when Ronayne Marsh-Brown’s long ball was flicked on by David Knight to Rob Laney, whose header was pushed away for a corner. Minutes later, Ahmet Rifat hit a volley from 30 yards out but his strike flew just over the bar.

VCD’s first main moment of pressure came when Lewis Perkins’ cross was poorly punched by Bobby Smith but the resulting corner was skied over the bar.

At the end of the first half, Knight had two shots on goal; the was first blocked and the second was easily saved by Nick Blue.

The second half began perfectly for the hosts. Knight whipped in a free-kick which Laney could not control but Marc Weatherstone spun and smashed his shot into the corner with his left foot.

Minutes later, two Marsh-Brown crosses ended in two corners and the latter resulted in a Weatherstone header being easily stopped.

A great passing move between Dean Carpenter, Smith, Michael Power and Lea Dawson led to the latter crossing perfectly to Karl Dent, but his effort produced a superb reflex save from Bobby Smith.

The game was sealed in stoppage-time as Laney squared to Knight, who could have scored himself, but squared to Karl Oliyide and he finished emphatically.

The hosts did have a chance to make it 3-0 but Knight blazed over after coolly rounding the goalkeeper.

Wingate & Finchley will look to build on this victory at the weekend when they travel to Arlesey Town in the first qualifying round of the FA Trophy.

Hendon produced another encouraging performance in holding fourth-placed Dulwich Hamlet to a goalless draw at Champion Hill on Saturday.

Manager Gary McCann said: “I think we’ll be happier to come away with a draw than they were. But we don’t go into any game not thinking about and trying to win. All in all, I think it was a point gained – I don’t often say that about our draws.

“It was a game we set up to leave certain players in possession and to look to break on their mistakes. I don’t think we were good enough in the way that we played in the first half.

“I made the changes in the second half because we needed to change the way that we played. Peter Dean and Belal Aite-Ouakrim offer different things to Tony Taggart and Leon Smith and we created more chances after the substitutions.

“Both goalkeepers made two very good saves, but neither team really did enough to win the game and neither did too little to deserve to lose it. So I think a draw was the right result.”

Dulwich made a rapid start and probably should have taken the lead inside 20 seconds when Shawn McCoulsky was given a shooting chance by Xavier Vidal. Ben McNamara made an excellent save, but the rebound fell to Nyren Clunis, who headed wastefully over the crossbar. It took until the 39th minute for Hendon to have a clear sight of goal. It came from a deep corner which was won by Lee O’Leary. He got free of his marker but looped his header onto the top of the net from a tight angle.

Third-placed Hendon improved after the break and went close to a winner through Sam Murphy but Oshane Brown superbly saved his effort.

The Greens start their FA Trophy campaign this weekend when they visit Bury Town.