Hendon's playoff hopes took a severe hit as they went down to a defeat against crisis-torn Lowestoft Town at Crown Meadow on Tuesday night. The good news for the Greens is that both Dulwich Hamlet, Staines Town and Margate also lost, but Leiston won and Leatherhead won their challenge against a possible points deduction.

The same starting 11 which had won the thriller against Worthing three days earlier were on duty at England's most easterly town, but the bench had two changes Michael Corcoran and Keagan Cole coming in for Sam Murphy and Cameron Currie.

The Greens' cause was not helped by the long journey to Suffolk, a difficult pitch, and the fact that the Trawlerboys had not played for more than a week. Nonetheless, it is rare for a Hendon team to be outenthused as was the case here.

Lowestoft created the first chance of the game when Jacek Zielonka had a clear shooting chance, but he directed straight at Tom Lovelock. His save was a comfortable one.

Hendon forced the next two openings, first when Zak Joseph saw his shot saved by Elvijs Putnins. Just before the 20-minute mark, Niko Muir came close to grabbing his 40th goal of the season when he beat Putnins, but Adam Smith made a clearance close to the goalline.

This block was indicative of Lowestoft's desire to keep out Hendon. They were happy to put their bodies on the line to make blocks and general disrupt the Greens' attacking ambitions.

And the Trawlerboys were not without creating a few openings of their own. It did seem however, that half-time would be reached with the stalemate intact.

Unfortunately for Hendon, it was not to be as, moments before the whistle, Robert Eagle fired a shot from the edge of the box. Lovelock saved, but could not hold the ball and and Harvey Hodd was on hand to knock home the rebound.

Hendon's equaliser came in the 51st minute and it was undoubtedly from their best passage of play from the match. Joseph picked up the ball and ran at the Lowestoft defence before unleashing a 25-yard strike which gave Putnins no chance.

The Greens upped the pressure, but they could not find the telling pass to unlock the home defence or the strike at goal to trouble Putnins. Both Rian Bray and Joseph, again, put efforts on target, but they were both easy for the goalkeeper to save.

Then, with 20 minutes to go, Lowestoft scored what proved to be the winning goal. Renei Batlowka, making his home debut on loan from Southend United, found himself on the edge of the penalty area, with few options in front of him, so he fired a shot which beat Lovelock.

Both teams quickly made changes, Armani Schaar replacing Hodd for Lowestoft and Hendon sending on both Casey Maclaren and Dan Uchechi for Luke Tingey and Ashley Nathaniel George. With ten minutes to go Matt Ball took over from Jake Eggleton as Hendon looked for a second equaliser.

They should have got it, too, with the game in stoppage time. A ball into the penalty area found Maclaren who had a header from about six yards out. Unfortunately for the Greens he could not direct the ball on target and the Lowestoft faithful breathed a sigh of relief as they picked up their first win in nine matches.