Greens grab defeat from the jaws of victory

Greensnet Editor
Thu 12 Nov 2009, 00:09

With 6 minutes to go in extra time, Hendon were in a comfortable position to close the game out and secure progression to the next round of the league cup. However, they failed to do so, Wingate & Finchley scored two late goals, the second coming with seconds left to go in extra time, and the away side went on to win 4-3 on penalties.

Hendon had the perfect start when Billy Dunn opened his account for the club in the 5th minute, but 20 minutes later Michael Lenahan equalised for Wingate. There were no further goals in normal time, but within 8 minutes of extra time starting, Hendon were two goals ahead. First of all a cross from Lubo Guentchev hit Peter Dean and found the back of the net, and then another Guentchev cross found Lewis Ochoa who bundled the ball home.

All the Greens had to do was close the game out, but Wingate had other ideas. James Gershfield scored in the 114th minute, and with seconds to go, David Laird took the game to penalties. For Hendon, though, it wasn't all misery as Lee O'Leary made a cameo appearance for the last ten minutes, his first appearance since his triple fracture at Horsham last season.