Those of a particularly nervous disposition will want to avoid today’s round up of the on-field history of Hendon Football Club with the statistics making particularly grim reading. Rather than spoiling our fun, we’ll dive straight in headlong to the glorious action.

And 1924 is where we begin as we met Redhill at the Avenue Ground and came away with a 3-3 draw thanks to a couple of goals from Ken Seabrooke and one from Cecil Wise and then in 1935 a Middlesex Charity Cup tie with Uxbridge Town ends 2-2 with Billy Breagan and Tommy Evans on target. This brought to an end a run of four straight defeats in which 22 goals were conceded.

In 1946 Finchley were defeated 3-2 in the same competition with goals from Melvyn Griffiths (2) and Jerry Marrable before Roy Evans, Arthur Phebey and Bob Avis struck in a 1952 3-3 Athenian League draw with Hayes at Claremont Road. So far so unbeaten.

It was in 1957 that things began to unravel with a 2-1 defeat at Finchley in which Peter Terry scored for the Greens in the Athenian League and this was followed in 1963 by a 1-0 defeat at Barking in the Amateur Cup, this on the same day that Luciano Pavarotti made his stage debut in La Traviata at the Vienna State Opera.

Derek Baker was on target in 1974 in a 1-1 Amateur Cup draw with Leatherhead at Fetcham Grove before Peter Deadman’s goal in 1980 wasn’t enough to prevent the Greens slipping to a 2-1 defeat at home to Walthamstow Avenue in the Isthmian League. The same opponents repeated the trick 2-years to the day later, with a 1-0 win this time, also in the Isthmian League before a 1985 visit to Slough Town ended 0-0.

1988 saw Barkingside beat the Greens in the London Senior Cup at Claremont Road and three years later in 1991 Bognor Regis Town came to Claremont Road and left with a very comfortable 3-0 win, this on the day that a military coup was launched in Thailand.

In 1999 as Eminem released the Slim Shady LP and Queer as Folk premiered on Channel 4, Hendon’s interest in the London Challenge Cup ended with a 3-0 defeat to Welling United in what was the Greens’ final appearance in the competition. Three years later in 2002 Ricci Crace came off the bench to score at Basingstoke Town but to no avail as the home side won 2-1 back in the Isthmian League.

That goal from Crace was one of just two the club have scored since 1980 and the other came from Danny Dyer in 2008 in a 1-1 draw with Margate. Five years later and Wealdstone were held to a goalless draw at Vale Farm.

We finish today’s retrospective two years ago as Gosport Borough came to Silver Jubilee Park. After losing skipper Mike Carter to a red card shortly before the break the visitors – aided by a sensational volley from his own half by George Barker – put on a perfect display with ten men to beat James Gray’s men 4-0.

The overall record on 23rd February makes for sorry reading with just a solitary win across 17 matches. 7 matches have been drawn and 9 lost. 16 goals have been scored – only five of which have been scored since 1952 – and 31 conceded.