A festive ding-dong battle saw Harrow Borough pull clear of the Isthmian Premier League relegation zone after winning a nine-goal thriller at Hendon on Boxing Day.

For the first time since 1989, a 27-year hoodoo, the Boro were victorious in a December 26 match - ironically, against the same opponents they had faced that day.

But even then, they did it the hard way, eventually picking up three Christmas points in a 5-4 victory at Silver Jubilee Park.

Josh Webb’s curling second-minute free-kick set the tone for a frantic afternoon to open the scoring, before Dave Diedhiou levelled up shortly after.

Harry Newman restored Boro’s advantage with a header - still less than 11 minutes in - but Sam Murphy again restored parity from the penalty spot after a foul by Michael Peacock.

A whole 13 minutes passed before the fifth goal of the afternoon, when Francis Babalola bundled home from Newman’s low cross.

The respite was very much over when Hendon levelled again only a minute later, with a fine strike from Casey Maclaren from the edge of the box left Luke Williams helpless.

In fact, it would spark the hosts into life - and four minutes before the break they led, when Reis Stanislaus struck a dipping effort beyond Williams.

After the break, Harrow kept pushing and found an equaliser through Joshua Webb’s penalty, before an exhausting afternoon of scoring was ended by Sahr Kabba with 17 minutes to go.

It proved enough to settle a pulsating tie - and bring Harrow back out of the relegation zone.