Town dominated the first half of Saturday's match but Hendon resumed after the break as a different side and showed some of the class they had demonstrated at New Lodge earlier in the season.

With Dean Parratt missing, Town had Steve Blaney in midfiled, but otherwise the team lined up much as normal.

What was unusual though was the kick off time. The 1pm start allowed fans to watch the England v Poland game immediately afterwards.

Saturday was, however, a warm day and players sweltered under a burning sun.

All seemed well for Billericay. A couple of good recent games had put memories of the goal-less month of February behind them and in the opening seconds, a good move saw the ball go wide and make home goalkeeper Gary McCann stretch for the first time.

Hendon were made to look an ordinary side by the industry of Keiren Adams in midfield and Steve Portway and Martin St Hilaire up front.

A sequence of excellent corners around the 20 minute mark showed Town to be well on top as play was concentrated in the Hendon half.

McCann was, however, little tested as Town failed to capitalise upon their superiority.

On 44 minutes a ball was lobbed forward, David Adekola headed it on and Portway latched onto the ball and hammered it past McCann and against the bar.

At the break Kevin Jordan replaced Blaney and Town put in some good early attacks.

Hendon though stepped up a gear. And ten minutes after the restart they scored somewhat against the run of play.

Leading scorer Paul Whitmarsh received a ball from the right and simply looked up and shot it into an unguarded corner of the net to record his 35th strike of the season.

Both managers used all their substitutes in a game of cat and mouse, with one's move quickly countered by the other's.

Hendon substitute Junior Lewis though was probably the most influential change.

His speed had been a particular feature of the teams' game at New Lodge. On this occasion too, he created danger every time he had the ball at his feet enlivening an otherwise quiet home crowd.

Town struggled to get back on terms and the nearest they got to an equaliser was on 70 minutes when Portway was only inches short of another cleverly planted through ball.

A minute later it was all over. Chris Moore was forced into a careless slice to concede a corner, and from Simon Clarke's kick, Gary Fitzgerald stooped low and headed in from close range.

Billericay Town: Root, Goldstone, Davidson, Moore, Sinfield, St Hilaire, Adams, Blaney (Jordan), Adekola (Kreyling), Portway, and Hooker (Bochenski).

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.