Hendon slipped to a disappointing defeat at home to playoff-chasing Boreham Wood at Vale Farm on Tuesday, losing to a penalty in a match of few clear-cut chances. Wood, it must be said, probably shaded the match and had more claim for maximum points than the Greens.

After 10 days without a fixture, Hendon shuffled their line-up, bringing back Berkley Laurencin, James Burgess and Lubomir Guentchev in place of James Reading, Danny Dyer and Kevin Maclaren, all of whom dropped to the bench where they were joined by Romanian newcomer, Florin Pelecaci and Dave Diedhiou, who was back after a suspension.

In the third minute a cynical obstruction by Luke Garrard was spotted by the referee and he awarded Hendon a free-kick 20 yards from the Boreham Wood, just to the left of centre. Peter Dean, Scott Cousins, Casey Maclaren and Jamie Busby all eyed up the situation and it was the first-named who took responsibility for the shot.

It sounded as if the ball struck the boot of a player in Boreham Wood's five-man defensive wall as it sped a foot past the left upright of Tony Tucker, but the referee gave a goal-kick. There was virtually no protest from any of the Hendon players in the locality.

When Boreham Wood had a chance, after 12 minutes, they too failed to take it. Claude Seanla set up Lee Allinson, who seemed to be unmarked only a few yards out from goal, but he was off target with his header.

The suddenly rather dry and hard surface caught both teams out and a number of enterprising passages of play from both teams came to inglorious ends courtesy of capricious bounces. Nevertheless, Hendon enjoyed some success on the flanks, with Guentchev asking some searching questions of Daniel Brathwaite.

Probably the biggest difference between the two teams was in the respective front pairs. For Hendon, neither Dean nor Maclaren are natural target-men strikers, both better coming forward from deeper positions; Wood's duo of Dewayne Clarke (recently signed from Harrow Borough) and Seanla (from Horsham) are genuine front men and it meant that James Parker and Bradley Thomas had far more work to do in keeping their men quiet than did Garrard and Ryan Moran.

Guentchev again got the better of Brathwaite after 38 minutes, but his shot flew just over the bar. In response, Mario Noto saw a powerful drive deflected to safety by the outstretched leg of the covering Thomas.

The second half started in bizarre fashion. The referee, not realising that one of his assistants was still repairing a goal net, allowed play to commence. The ball went out of play and there was a flare-up between James Burgess and Greg Morgan. The referee was alerted to the fact that his assistant wasn't in position, he took no action against Burgess or Morgan, and he restarted the half again from the centre spot.

Three minutes into the second period, more good work from Guentchev ended with the Bulgarian firing the ball towards the far post. It brought out an excellent save from Tucker, who was nonetheless somewhat fortunate that his parry fell to white shirt and not a green one.

Laurencin then made a superb save of his own, tipping over a goalbound header from Clarke. The next time the goalkeeper was called into action, Hendon were a goal behind.

With match about to reach the hour mark, a through ball should have been a comfortable gather for Laurencin, but before the ball could reach him, Thomas impeded Seanla, who, off balance palmed the ball over the goal-line, near the edge of the penalty area.

The assistant referee immediately flagged - not for the hand-ball, but correctly for the foul on the striker and signalled that the offence had taken place inside the penalty area. Mario Noto, who had equalised with a spot-kick early in the second half of the reverse fixture at Meadow Park in February, again stepped up and once more made no mistake.

Boosted by the goal and taking advantage of Hendon's loss of confidence after conceding, Boreham Wood enjoyed their best spell of the match and, in the next 15 minutes, really should have put the game out of the Greens' reach. First Leon Hunter somehow managed to miss the ball in a great position when set up by Noto and Seanla.

After 62 minutes, Hendon replaced Burgess with Diedhiou, not because of his earlier fracas but, having been cautioned, and with Wood about to send on the rapid Chris Watters in place of Morgan, another mistimed challenge from Hendon man would have ended his evening. Before play could resume, Wood made their change.

Three minutes later, Seanla was given a clear run at goal. He had no one, bar Laurencin in front of him, but he could not beat the goalkeeper with his shot. Then, in the 75th minute, from a Hendon corner, Garrard found substitute Chris Watters, who released Seanla. This time the Ivorian did beat Laurencin with a lob, but could not find the target, the ball dropping a foot or so wide of the right post.

Hendon finally created another opening. It came from a right wing cross and Maclaren, having lost his marker, had a free header from eight yards. The ball was just a little to high for him and Maclaren was unable to direct the header under the crossbar.

With five minutes of normal time remaining, Hendon had a penalty appeal turned down. A pass from Craig Vargas saw Cousins chasing with Moran and Bradley Fraser. The ball bounced between the players, struck one of them on the hand and was hurriedly cleared by a white shirt.

Cousins, knowing that it had not been his hand struck by the ball, immediately appealed for a penalty. The referee was not in a position to make a decision, so looked to his assistant, who was also unable to be sure whose hand the ball had struck. For his protestations, Cousins was shown a yellow card.

This was the signal four more substitutions in the next 90 seconds - Hendon in a bid to salvage at least a point, Boreham Wood attempting to run down the clock. Kevin Maclaren and Dyer came on for Cousins and Thomas, while for Wood, Jon Clements and Louis Riddle replaced Allinson and the injured Watters, respectively.

Dyer soon troubled the Wood defence and a low cross caused some panic in the visitors' penalty area, but there weren't enough green shirts on hand to convert the chance. Guentchev again stung the palms of Tucker and a spectacular overhead kick from the same player - a favourite move of his father - found only the side-netting.

"I thought we competed really well and gave everything we had tonight," bemoaned a frustrated and disappointed Hendon manager Gary McCann, "but a horrendous error has cost us the game.

"We lacked foxes in the box. I am not criticising either Casey Maclaren or Peter Dean - they worked fantastically hard - but neither are that type of forward who goes hunting for chances. Scott Cousins and Lubomir Guentchev put in some quality crosses but we didn't have anyone on the end of them."