Hendon, struck down again by the injury bug, were beaten 2–0 by Staines Town at Vale Farm, Wembley FC, on Friday evening. The Greens probably had as much possession as the Swans, but they didn’t do as much with it and the 17-place difference in the table was clear to see.

With Harry Hunt, Mark Kirby and Craig Vargas all injured in last weekend’s match against Wealdstone, Hendon gave a debut to new signing, striker Peter Dean, while welcoming back Marc Leach from suspension. Sam Collins came in for Vargas as the third change.

Staines played with the confidence that comes from an unbeaten League run that stretches back to early November and with four dangerous attackers or attacking midfielders playing together, goals always seemed likely.

The main strikers, Leroy Griffiths and Scott Taylor have more than 500 Football League appearances and 100 goals between them and they have formed a dangerous duo. Prompting them were Howard Newton and Richard Butler, who had scored twice in the reverse fixture at Wheatsheaf Park in September.

Will Viner produced an excellent save to keep out an effort from Taylor after 12 minutes and then was grateful that no one could reach a ball that fizzed across the six yard box.In the 25th minute, Staines did have the ball in the Hendon net, but the assistant referee had already flagged for offside.

Hendon tried hard to make inroads into against a solid defence, but there were never any clear openings and the Greens were, all too often, guilty of over-elaboration. On two or three occasions, the chance of a shot was spurned in favour of a pass, which allowed the rearguard to regroup.

After Viner had denied Griffiths with another acrobatic stop, Howard Newton should have given the Swans the lead before half-time. The Hendon defence was ripped apart and when the ball fell to Newton, he was around 12 yards from goal, with Viner struggling to get into position. Newton opted for a side-foot past where Viner was coming from, but put the ball a foot wide of the left upright.

Eight minutes into the second half, Staines made the breakthrough. A Hendon attack broke down and Staines launched a quick counter-attack down the left side. James Parker came across to deal with the danger, but when the ball was played past him, no one had tracked the run of NEWTON, and he needed no second bidding to atone for his first-half miss with a confident finish.

Knocked back by this goal, Hendon committed defensive suicide less than two minutes later. It was a personal nightmare for Viner, who collected a back-pass from Leach and tried to take too many touches. Taylor came to shut him down and did enough to block Viner’s attempted clearance.

The ball did not go far and although Taylor could probably have scored himself, he spotted Butler running into space. Taylor’s square pass opened up the whole of the goal for BUTLER, who could not miss.

With a two-goal lead, Staines were able to relax and they allowed Hendon to have their best spell of the game in the final half-hour. After 63 minutes, the Greens had their first meaningful strike at goal, a shot from Dean, at an acute angle. Louis Wells almost certainly had the angle covered, but he was still grateful that the powerful drive flew into the side netting at the near post.

Brian Haule had already replaced the ineffective Glenn Garner at half-time and Hendon made their last two changes with 18 minutes to go, Lubo Guentchev and Kevin Maclaren taking over from Sam Byfield and James Bent, neither of whom had made much of an impact.

Lee O’Leary had a half-chance from a corner, but his header didn’t have enough power and Wells was able to gather . At the other end, Viner made another good stop: it was almost as if Staines were warning Hendon that if they scored, the Swans would waste little time in restoring their two-goal advantage.

That said, there may well have been a grandstand finish if Dean’s shot past Wells into the net had counted. Unfortunately for the Greens, the assistant referee had his flag up for offside and the goal didn’t count.

A long-range shot from James Burgess the ricocheted off a couple of players before falling to Haule, but Marien Ifura was in quickly to deny the striker the chance to shoot at goal.

In the final couple of minutes, Haule really should have reduced the arrears when he jumped alone to meet a cross. He was only five yards out and the whole of the goal to aim at, but put his header inches over the crossbar. It would have been little more than a consolation for the Greens.

“Two defensive errors cost us,” admitted manager Gary McCann. “We gave them two gift-wrapped errors for their goals. But Staines are second for a reason. They don’t make mistakes and I thought they shaded the game.

“We got into the game in the final 25 minutes but their defence looked very solid. I thought Peter Dean had an excellent debut.”

(Report by David Ballheimer - not to be reproduced without permission from the author)