Hendon got an early goal from Harry Hunt against Margate at Hartsdown Park on Saturday afternoon and hung to win their first FA Trophy tie for four seasons. Although manager Gary McCann was reasonably satisfied with the performance, Hendon have played much better this season and come away with nothing.

There were no changes to the 11 which had seen off Harrow Borough 7–0 at Northwood on Wednesday night, the only change being Berkley Lawrencin taking Mark Kirby’s place on the bench.

The first chance of the game came in the second minute and Hendon were lucky not to go a goal down when a cross from the left wing was flicked goalwards by Kenny Pratt. His shot beat Richard Wilmot, but struck the underside of the crossbar and was hacked clear.

Within 40 seconds Hendon had scored what proved to be the winner. There seemed little on when HUNT picked up the ball 15 yards outside the Margate penalty area. He carried the ball forward for about 15 yards before shooting towards the far post.

It did not seem a particularly powerful strike, but Scott Chalmers-Stevens either dived too early or too low, or both. Whatever it was, the ball skipped over his outstretched arms and went into the net just inside the far post.

This was the perfect start for Hendon, but they didn’t really build on it. That said, Margate hardly laid siege on the Wilmot’s goal, although the big goalkeeper was by far the busier of the two stoppers.

Margate’s most influential player in the first half was Pratt, who could and probably should have had a first-half hat-trick. From an excellent position, after 18 minutes, he managed to fire wide and, in first half stoppage time, he was denied by a superb block by Wilmot in a one-on-one situation. This was the second time in the half Wilmot had been quick off his line to deal with an oncoming forward.

In the second half, both teams’ passing remained very inconsistent and although Margate had much more possession, their finishing deteriorated from mediocre in the first half. Indeed, apart from an excellent save from Chalmers-Stevens to keep out a Lee O’Leary free-kick, neither goalkeeper could have claimed to have been overworked in the second period.

The closest Margate came to an equaliser was a chance that fell to Kieran Morris, a half-time substitute for Paul Smith. He had time to line up a shot, but O’Leary made a lunging block to ensure the ball never went close to the target.

Hendon’s best opening of the second half came in the 72nd minute, when Lubomir Guentchev got around the back of the Margate defence and crossed low for Hunt. The ball rather got trapped between the striker’s feet and by the time he had extricated it, Dan Young had swooped to knock the ball in a tackle to a grateful Chalmers-Stevens.

With two minutes of normal time remaining, Margate players, bench and supporters were seething when they felt they should have been awarded a penalty. Ryan Francis made a surging run from his right-back position, played a one-two with Morris and suddenly had a clear run at goal.

Rakatahr Hudson came across and made a challenge. He was convinced it was inches outside the penalty area, but he did admit that he made no contact with the ball and sent Francis sprawling inside the penalty area. The referee and his assistant thought otherwise and decided that Hudson had indeed made contact with the ball and allowed play to continue.

An irate Barry Ashby, the Margate manager, took his protests too far and, as Hendon made the second of their three late substitutions, he said one thing too many to the match official and was escorted away from the dugout.

The three minutes of added time became more than four, but Hendon’s nerves were never too stretched as Margate had long since run out of ideas.

“I thought some of our play was good today,” said Mr McCann, who conceded, “Because we scored early, it forced them to come to us and we had to play in a different way.

It was not as fluent as we have been, but we didn’t have as much possession as we normally do.”

(Report by David Ballheimer - Not to be reproduced without prior permission)