Hendon lost their opening game of the season this afternoon going down 1-0 to Braintree Town. The home side started much brighter than the Greens in the first half and had three or four chances to take the lead in the first 25 minutes. Hendon then came back into the game and had chances of their own, the best of which saw a Ross Pickett header go just wide. The second half started like the first with Braintree making the running and they were rewarded when they took advantage of an error for Alex Revell to score from close range in the 56th minute. However, the Greens were determined not to give up and came very close to an equaliser when a header from Eugene Ofori slammed off the crossbar in the 81st minute and five minutes later Steve McGrath saw his effort fly just wide of the bar but the home side held on to win the game. Two players made their competitive debuts this afternoon in substitutes Andrew Judge and Youness Nabil.