Hendon reached the last eight of the Middlesex Senior Cup with a 3–0 defeat of Combined Counties League Bedfont Green at Vale Farm on Wednesday night. Two goals in the opening 11 minutes meant that the possible banana skin never materialised.

Richard Wilmot, Sam Collins (who was on loan from MK Dons last season, but now has returned on a more permanent basis from Wivenhoe Town), Casey Maclaren, Charlie Mapes, Glenn Garner and Sam Byfield came into a shuffled line-up, while Chris Bangura and Mark Kirby were on the bench after long spells out injured.

The first chance of the game fell to Bedfont, but Samuel Arun was denied a second-minute goal by a smart save from Wilmot, who deflected his goalbound shot just wide of the post having been quick to narrow the angle.

Hendon quickly put this fright behind them and opened the scoring less than five minutes later. A through ball down the middle split the defence wide open and Garner was suddenly given a clear run at goal. Lee Pearce was off his line quickly but a deft touch from GARNER lifted the ball over and wide of the goalkeeper.

Four minutes later the lead was doubled. Byfield made the first inroads down the left side and MACLAREN made no mistake when the ball reached the middle of the penalty area.

Bedfont suffered further problems after 18 and 26 minutes as Arun and defender Lee Morley left the match injured, Daniel White and Ryan Copeland, respectively, replacing them.

It was actually too easy for Hendon, who spurned a number of chances as the half progressed. Harry Hunt, Byfield, Jamie Busby and Garner all failed to hit the target when accurate strikes would probably have increased the Greens’ advantage.

Lubo Guentchev replaced Maclaren at half-time – a planned change – and Hendon rather lost their impetus in the second half. They were rarely troubled, though some careless passes in and around their own penalty area almost caused embarrassment.

After 55 minutes, Bedfont Green did have the ball in the Hendon net following a right-wing free-kick, but the assistant referee’s flag was raised for offside long before the header into the net was made.

Man of the match Pearce had already distinguished himself with a couple of fine stops in the second half before he was finally beaten. A low cross from near the goalline just inside the left edge of the penalty area may well have found a green shirt, but Carl McCluskey got there first and he slid the ball past Pearce for an unfortunate OWN GOAL.

Bangura came on for his first action in more than three months, replacing Garner with just over 20 minutes remaining and he should have scored a hat-trick in that time. With Bedfont tiring noticeably in the final 15 minutes, the Greens could and should have doubled their advantage. That they didn’t was down to some pretty mediocre finishing and some brilliant goalkeeping from the agile Pearce.

“In the run of form we are in at the moment, I am delighted to get a win,” said manager Gary McCann. “But although we were in control and didn’t really look like losing, we should have scored more goals.”

(Report by David Ballheimer - not to be reproduced in any form without the author's agreement)