Three-goal Hendon overcome Horsham

The result, involving the ninth win and 11th clean sheet in 14 away Ryman League Premier Division fixtures, lifted the Greens back up to seventh in the table – this on a day when all of the top six played and none of them won.

For Horsham, the truth is 11 home defeats in 13 matches is relegation form and the players, for all their willing running and never-say-die attitude, are too inexperienced and over-matched at present. It didn’t help that they were without two players serving suspensions and the only luck the Hornets got all afternoon was of the bad variety.

Hendon made two changes to the starting 11 from the victory at Metropolitan Police two weeks earlier, with James Archer effectively being replaced by Greg Ngoyi – Dave Diedhiou dropped into full-back, Michael Lewis deeper into midfield with Ngoyi up front – and Ryan Wharton taking over from the unavailable Lewis Hunt.

The Greens had the strong wind at their backs in the first half as they kicked up the slope at a heavily sanded Gorings Mead.

It was a difficult surface to play on and Ngoyi, twice, and Elliott Charles, once, appeared to be released by astute passes from midfield, only for the ball to accelerate away from them and run into barriers behind the goal.

On another occasion, Ngoyi got himself into a good position, only to lose his footing.

Horsham had Kery Kedze to thank for their best moments in the opening quarter-of-an-hour. He gave Diedhiou a difficult time but the final ball into the penalty area was not quite good enough.

Berkley Laurencin was a little fortunate in the 14th minute when a snap-shot from Tommy Murphy kicked off the pitch just in front of the goalkeeper, but he did well to shove the ball wide of the near post. It was a portent of what was to come in the second half.

From the corner, Hendon failed to clear the danger and when the ball was struck back into the penalty area George Landais deflected it goalwards, only to see it strike team-mate Ray Freeman on the line. From the rebound Landais contrived to miss the target from around six yards. This, too, was a portent of things to come after the break.

Four minutes later, the pitch again denied Hendon.

Ngoyi ran onto another through ball, reaching it before Hornets goalkeeper Michael Hunter. He took the ball past him, but stumbled and, although he regained his feet, a defender and the keeper were able to thwart him. Ngoyi immediately went off to change his boots.

These new boots also let him down, however, in the 31st minute.

Michael Lewis flicked on a goal-kick, Ngoyi was too strong for Yinka Salami and again had only Hunter to beat. The goalkeeper was off his line, but as far from the goal as he was Ngoyi when shot.

A placed low shot would surely have scored, as would a simple lob, but the drive from Ngoyi flew high over the crossbar and Horsham breathed a sigh of relief.

Hendon’s set pieces hadn’t really worked for 35 minutes. Four corners had all been intricate but one was cleared by the Hornets’ Liam Flanigan, while the others all sailed into unmanned parts of the penalty area before bouncing away to safety.

If at first, you don’t succeed, try, try again. So goes the motto and it proved perfect for Hendon in the 37th minute.

A corner move involving Currie and Kevin Maclaren resulted in a cross which a stooping, unmarked Wharton was able to head into the net from 12 yards.

Charles and Ngoyi could have extended the Hendon lead in the last few minutes of the first half but Hunter made a good save from the former and the ball didn’t run kindly for the latter.

Early in the second half, good approach play from Kedze and Freeman set up Landais with what seemed a routine tap-in from three yards for the equaliser but somehow the young striker sliced the ball wide of the target. It was an amazing let-off for the Greens – in their third-choice silver and black kit, necessary because of Horsham’s amber and green halves.

The wind, which had died down at the start of the second half, gradually began to strengthen again and it worked against Charles, who found the ball holding up as he tried to run onto a pass from Elliott Godfrey.

At the other end, what seemed to be an error of judgement by James Fisher was actually perfect because the ball bounced away from Landais and Laurencin was able to gather without too much difficulty.

With Maclaren’s midfield dominance becoming more and more of a factor, Horsham decided to replace Kedze with Jake Jacobs, a more defensive player. Nonetheless, Maclaren – on his 150th Hendon appearance – was still able to twice get himself into good shooting positions but elected to pass and the moves came to nothing.

Hendon’s second goal, in the 73rd minute, came courtesy of the pitch.

A clumsy foul by Calum McGeehan on Charles resulted in a Hendon free-kick five yards outside the penalty and a similar distance wide of the left post. McGeehan might have been lucky not to pick up a yellow card, but his team paid a bigger penalty.

Currie and Godfrey stood over the free-kick and it was the former who took responsibility for the shot. He bent it perfectly past the five-man wall and weighted it to bounce a foot or so in front of Hunter.

The goalkeeper could not have expected the ball to explode off the surface as high as it did, striking him on the shoulder. As the ball looped in the air, Ngoyi beat Charles in the five-yard sprint to it and flicked it into the net.

Horsham have not recovered from a two-goal deficit all season, so the third goal, just two minutes later, was the final nail in the coffin for the Hornets. Again they were the victims of misfortune, but this time it was at least partially self-inflicted.

Charles, ever willing in his running, forced Salami to pass the ball back to his goalkeeper but he didn’t strike it cleanly enough – or maybe was afraid of a bad bobble. Either way, Hunter had to be quick to reach the ball and he smashed it downfield – or it would have been downfield if Charles' face hadn’t been in the way.

The striker was flat on the ground in agony as Hunter looked on in emotional pain, watching the ball bounce into the unguarded net behind him. Hendon players ran to congratulate the prostrate Charles but were moved out of the way by physio Mark Findley, who administered treatment to the striker.

Before play could resume, both Ngoyi and Charles were substituted by Isaiah Rankin and Carl McCluskey. Horsham then replaced Landais with Ahmed Jahar, while Jerome Federico took over from Lewis for the Greens.

Federico then did very well to use his pace to get past Callum Dunne and had a chance to cut in towards goal. Neither Rankin nor McCluskey were in the penalty area, so Federico fed Maclaren and he was quickly shut down.

In the dying minutes, Murphy tried his luck with a shot from an acute angle but it found the outside of the side netting and it appeared that Laurencin, in any case, had the shot covered.

“I am pleased with the win, but we need to put games to bed earlier,” said Hendon manager Gary McCann. “Our ball retention in very difficult conditions was very good. Horsham never gave up and didn’t play like a team that is in their position.

“We have a testing set of matches coming up but I believe we can win them and put ourselves in a good position in the table.”

Hendon: Laurencin, Diedhiou, Cousins, Wharton, Fisher, K Maclaren, M Lewis (Federico 82), Godfrey, Ngoyi (Rankin 76), Currie, Charles (McCluskey 76). Not used: Archer and Davie.