Hendon reached the midpoint of their pre-season journey with a 1-1 draw at Sevenoaks Town on Saturday, a fixture which, to the writer’s knowledge, has never occurred before even though both clubs are well over 100 years old.

A number of Hendon’s signed players were unavailable for this game, so several trialists were still required, three starting and a fourth coming on at half-time. Of the three starters, the goalkeeper was an experienced player in place of Josh Strizovic, who was unavailable, and he may be seen again on Tuesday. The #12 trialist appeared to be new for this match, and did not seem to achieve a great deal in midfield, while the #5 trialist, a defender, was playing his third successive match. He had been a second half substitute at Witham and at Ware; this time he started and actually played the whole 90 minutes – not only that, for the second match running he was heavily involved in Hendon scoring. The second half substitute was playing his fourth successive match as a central defender.

In the first half Sevenoaks were the better side and should have scored more than one goal, which came after 21 minutes when their wide right player got free and gave the visiting ‘keeper no chance. Their passing was quick and accurate, and they created a number of chances, but effective if somewhat fortunate defending at times got the Greens through the worst. That said, the visitors were not without chances of their own, Radu-Mihai Stefanoaica causing problems to the Sevenoaks defence with his pace, and he was unfortunate not to score. The interval came with the home side leading by the one goal.

Both sides made changes at the break – Hendon making five – and made further changes during the second half. Play in the second half was more even, and the Greens may even have shaded it, but both attacks squandered a number of chances, the worst miss coming when a Sevenoaks player had to jump to try to chest the ball into an open goal from about four yards out, only for the ball to clear the crossbar by a couple of feet.

There was only one goal scored in the second half, Hendon’s equaliser. It came after 78 minutes, when a long ball out of defence down the left found the #5 trialist, who had moved forward in anticipation, free to break down the wing. He drew the Sevenoaks defence and ‘keeper towards him but passed inside to ISAAC STONES who had little difficulty in netting his third pre-season goal. The match ended all square at 1-1.

It was a hard-fought game with plenty of firm tackles coming in from both sides, however there were little or no complaints and no sign of any nastiness from any player on either side.

Both managers expressed themselves satisfied with the way the game went and with the final outcome, however both may privately feel that their attacks may need to sharpen up their finishing.