Ady Gallagher was relieved to see the spirit that has served Lowestoft Town so well in recent years is still alive – after the Blues' boss saw his side hit back from 3-0 down.
Hendon, with just two Ryman Premier wins to their name so far this season, had dominated the first half and went into the break 1-0 up thanks to Niko Muir's strike in the 22nd minute.
That was largely thanks to the performance of Lowestoft keeper Jamie Waite, who had to be taken off at the break after hurting his neck making a brave save late in the half.
Story of the game: Lowestoft Town 3 Hendon 3
Youngster Josh Glover came on to make his debut but more lackluster defending saw him concede after just four minutes, Muir teeing up Casey Maclaren to smash home from six yards. Ten minutes later Glover inexplicably lost possession outside of his box to allow Muir to roll his second goal into the net – and leave Lowestoft staring down the barrel of defeat.
However, the hosts sprung into life and Micky Spillane headed in Fraser Blake-Tracy's free-kick from the left just a minute later.
Spillane then sparked the match into life with a fabulous volley in the 73rd minute, finishing a lovely flowing move down the left that allowed Blake-Tracy to cross again.
Harvey Hodd forced a superb save soon after but Lowestoft were still searching for an equaliser when, deep into stoppage time, Khale Da Costa smashed a long-range shot against the post for Hendon. But after that let off, Lowestoft charged forward and Ryan Jarvis headed down to allow Chris Henderson to spark the celebrations with a close range finish and make it 3-3 five minutes into injury-time.
'We never stop playing right to the last minute, we keep trying to play, keep trying to do the right thing,' Gallagher said. 'I don't think we've seen quite enough of that spirit at times this year but it's good to see when you rebuild teams and players are changing all the time, it's difficult to keep that alive, but I could see in that last half an hour that spirit is still there and our players are still fighting for each other.
'When you can play not particularly well and come back from 3-0 down it shows that you've got spirit in your side but also that you've got quality and we need to try and use this as a platform to kick on.'
Lowestoft: Waite (Josh Glover 46); Cole, Spillane, McAuley, Blake-Tracy; Fisk (Ryan Jarvis 85), Rossi Jarvis (C); Marsden (Smith 64), Hodd, Henderson; Reed. Unused subs: Forshaw, Barker.
Hendon: Laurencin; Seeby (C), Young, Lee, Balogun; Diedhiou, McCall; Oliyide (Robins 64), Maclaren, Andre Da Costa (Khale Da Costa 85); Muir (Morgan 90+4). Unused subs: Cole, Tingey.
Referee: Paul Quick
Attendance: 522
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