Hendon were distinctly unlucky to lose the Middlesex Senior Cup Final at Uxbridge by a margin of 3-0 on Easter Monday evening. They were beaten by clearly the better side, but a solitary goal defeat would have been a more appropriate outcome.

The night was bitterly cold, but it was heart-warming to see and hear the Hendon supporters outshouting and outsinging their rivals for most of the 90 minutes. There were certainly more Hendon supporters in the crowd officially recorded as 442 than there were from Hampton.

Following Saturday's postponement at Tonbridge Angels, Hendon had a nearly full squad to choose from and the same starting eleven was selected as saw off Ashford Town (Middlesex) a week earlier. Indeed the only change to the 16 was James Burgess's return at the expense of manager Gary McCann.

This was a cagey affair, which Hampton won, mainly because they were a little cuter than Hendon and made fewer mistakes - not that this was an error-prone contest. A beautiful pitch allowed both teams to play the football they wanted to, and in Hendon's case that meant passing. Unfortunately, Hendon - led by fit-again James Parker - were guilty of making some ill-judged passes at the wrong end of the pitch and they were lucky on a couple of occasions to escape serious punishment.

Hampton have dominated recent encounters between the teams and they followed the same successful strategy that has seen climb to a playoff place in Conference South: compressing the field, attacking at pace and defenders denying opposition strikers any space close to goal. The result was that Matt Lovett had to make four saves from shots and all were from at least 18 yards' range.

Both Brian Haule and Belal Aiteouakrim were shackled by Orlando Jeffrey and Stuart Lake, with neither ever having a clear-cut opportunity. That said, Marc Leach and Sam Page did an equally effective job in stopping Ian Hodges and Lawrence Yaku, forwards who have previously enjoyed a fair degree of success against Hendon.

Hendon’s first shot on target came from Jamie Busby after 18 minutes, but Lovett was untroubled as he saved low down. At the other end, Yaku had a half-chance, but fired wide of the target.

The opening goal came in the 26th minute and it was something against the run of play, to say nothing of being a bolt out of the blue. Hampton had possession around the half-way line and the ball was fed to Shaun McAuley. For once, no one came to shut down the space in front of McAuley, who rifled home a beautiful shot from some 25 yards, leaving Luke Blackmore without a chance of making a save.

Hendon responded with efforts from both Lee O'Leary and Lubo Guentchev, but Lovett was equal to both of them. Guentchev had a fine battle with Marcello Fernandes and frequently got the better of him, but there was always another defender in close proximity to deny the young Bulgarian too much space. After 36 minutes, Guentchev did wriggle past Fernandes and Alan Inns - a surprising choice as man of the match - blocked his path. It might have been obstruction, probably not a penalty, but the referee was happy that there was no foul.

When O'Leary was cynically taken out by Francis Quarm, he was quick to react, showing the midfielder a yellow card. Just before the break Casey Maclaren almost reached a deep cross, but the ball bounced kindly towards Lovett, who grabbed it a metre in front of London's youngest ever black cab driver.

The second half did not flow as well as the first had, with Hampton happy to keep Hendon at arm's length. Both teams appeared to use the offside trap and the assistant referees flagged almost every time a defender from either side appealed for a decision. There were certainly a few very close calls that went Hampton’s way defensively, though they will no doubt feel the same was true at the other end.

Hendon's best chance of the match came with a dozen minutes to go. For once a ball into the penalty area was well worked and Lovett could not reach it. Guentchev, for barely a second, had an open goal to aim at but, by the time he struck the ball, Lake was directly in front of him and he blocked the shot.

Four minutes later, Hendon's hopes of victory were dashed. Once more it was McAuley who struck the dagger blow, though this time his shot was neither as well directed nor as powerful as his first half effort. Either way, Blackmore didn't make a save and it was 2-0.

The response from Hendon was to withdraw Maclaren, who had picked up an injury, and Davis Haule, another midfielder who had been well policed by the Beavers all evening, and introduce Danny Dyer and Rakatahr Hudson in their places.

Neither player really had much time to make an impact. Then, in the fourth minute of stoppage time, substitutes Kelvin McIntosh and Graham Harper combined down the right and the latter squeezed a shot inside Blackmore's near post. It was cruel end to the game for Hendon.

Mr McCann was disappointed to lose, but realistic in his assessment of the game. "We came up against a well-oiled machine," he said.

"They are a very professional outfit and they have a lot of experience, with many players who have won a lot of things. They were that little bit better than us at both ends of the field.

"We gave it our all, but we just weren't quite good enough, although 3–0 absolutely flattered them."

(Report by David Ballheimer - not to be reproduced in any form without the author's agreement)