After struggling to see sides off in recent home games, Sutton United went to the other extreme on Saturday and had just about put this game to bed before it was a quarter of the way through.

Three goals up inside 22 minutes, Sutton rarely looked like giving up the initiative despite a determined effort by a Hendon side.

But the visitors, having reduced the arrears through a penalty three minutes after half time, might have set up a difficult last 15 minutes had they taken a couple of reasonable chances.

The damage had been done, though, as a lively United front line of Anthony Joseph and Steve Watts, well supported on the flanks by debutant Craig Dobson, signed from Farnborough on Friday, and Danny Phillips, threatened to run riot against some uncertain defending in the first half.

Joseph’s pace in particular was something with which Hendon never really came to terms, and both Craig Vargas and former United defender Bradley Thomas were booked for their efforts to stop him.

Thomas was perhaps lucky not to be sent off for preventing what looked to be a clear run on goal two minutes from time.

Sutton were on their way in the fifth minute when Dobson’s corner from the right was headed powerfully in by Steve Perkins.

The same combination almost led to a second soon afterwards when Perkins headed Dobson’s free kick back across goal and Joseph was stretching just too much to make any meaningful contact in front of goal.

He wasn’t to be denied, though, and after getting the better of a defender midway inside the Hendon half, he shook off two more challenges on his way in to the penalty area and tucked a shot past James Reading.

Hendon looked to get back in to the game as Lee O’Leary headed wide from a corner, a touch off Thomas taking the ball just higher than O’Leary wanted.

Joseph came close for United again when he reached a Watts flick that the defence thought was safely Reading’s, but lifted his shot over the bar.

The third goal wasn’t far away, though, Kevin McLaren looking on in horror as his ambitious and misdirected back pass from the left touchline gave Reading too much to do before Watts forced the ball away from the keeper and rolled it in.

Sutton's best move of the game, involving Phillips, Joseph and Dobson after Karim El-Salahi had cleared his lines from a corner, could have produced a brilliant fourth but Dobson’s cross just evaded the onrushing Sonny Cobbs.

It seemed that Sutton were in a position where they could do much as they liked for the rest of the game.

The half time introduction of leading scorer James Bent livened Hendon, though, and Kevin Scriven had made a superb save to keep out a Thomas header, Bent’s effort from the rebound cannoned off a combination of Scriven and post. The ball was played back low from the left and Jason Goodliffe’s challenge on O’Leary, while seeming to get plenty of the ball, was deemed by referee John O’Brien to have taken enough of the Hendon player as well to warrant a penalty which Jamie Busby converted.

Sutton never fully recaptured the fluency of the first half, although Joseph drifted between two defenders before flashing a shot just over.

Reading was almost caught out when Billy Hawes fired in a cross shot from the right, the ball going through his hands but just wide of the far post.

Danny Dyer might have brought Hendon right back in to the game when he skipped clear of El-Salahi, on a booking and reluctant to make a risky challenge, but shot across the face of goal.

As United began to tire near the end, substitute Lubomir Guentchev put a cross too far ahead of O’Leary, while Thomas put a header wide from a corner.

But Sutton’s first-half performance had been well worth the points as they extended their unbeaten run to 14 league games and consolidated their place in the play-off zone.

Sutton: K Scriven, B Hawes, K El-Salahi, J Goodliffe, S Perkins, S Cobbs, D Phillips (sub S McKimm 73), C Dobson (sub A Pouton 59), S Watts(sub S Gargan 70), A Joseph, J Hawes. Subs n/u M Hann, F Quarm. Goals: Perkins (5), Joseph (11), Watts(22). Booked: El-Salahi (54-persistent infringement)

Hendon: J Reading, B Thomas, S Cousins, A Vargas, J Parker, J Busby, D Dyer (sub L Guentchev 76), L O’Leary, C McLaren (sub J Bent H-T), K McLaren (sub J Burgess 76), P Dean. Subs n/u B Laurencin. Goal: Busby (48 pen). Booked: C McLaren (40-dissent), Vargas(63-foul), Thomas(88-foul).

Referee: J O’Brien (Wimbledon Park)

Att 497