On This Day: 28th February

Greensnet Editor
Sun 28 Feb 2021, 20:28

Without further ado our catch-up is complete as we take a look back at 28th February and matches on that day in Hendon’s history. 1920 saw the club first take to the field on this day and pick up a 1-1 draw thanks to a goal from F Gathercole who, if he wasn’t a miner damn well should have been.

Five years later in 1925 two goals from Cecil Wise and another from Ken Seabrooke did the damage as Windsor & Eton were beaten 3-1 in the Athenian League and in 1931 as Oswald Mosley formed the New Party in England, Redhill were thumped 6-1 at Claremont Road. Freddie Evans helped himself to two and was ably assisted by Bill Morton, Harry Walsh, A Potter and Stan Moore in the goalscoring stakes.

As the Japanese were landing in Java in 1942, Hitchin Town were beaten 3-1 in the Herts & Middlesex League Cup thanks to Roy Stroud, Les Fontana and Frank Alexander with Fontana again on target half a dozen years later in 1948 along with Bob Avis and Bill Reay in a 3-2 Amateur Cup replay win at Highbury after the original tie had been abandoned with Hendon 3-0 up.

Roy Stroud also grabbed his own second goal on 28th February in 1953, 11-years after his first, as Hayes were comfortably beaten 4-0 at Church Road. Cliff Nock (2) and Maurice Potten were also on the scoresheet, this on the day that Francis Crick and James Watson discovered the chemical structure of the DNA-molecule. Six-years later Leytonstone came to Claremont Road in 1959 in an Amateur Cup quarter-final replay and won 2-1, Tommy Lawrence’s goal nothing more than a consolation.

Dave Swain and Danny Lakey both scored in a 1967 2-2 Isthmian League draw against Wealdstone on the day that a West German court made a ruling that Anna Anderson had not proven that she was the missing Russian Duchess, Anna Romanov and three years later in 1970 it was the Hendon defence that went missing as Hitchin Town won 2-1 in the London Senior Cup at Claremont Road, John Baker with the Hendon goal.

Baker repeated the trick in 1976 as Sutton United came to Claremont Road and went home with the points in a 2-1 win, this as Spain withdrew from the Western Sahara and in 1981 they had defenders to thank for the points as they grabbed three of the goals in a 4-2 win over Staines Town. Anthony Bennett, Peter Deadman and Peter Anderson were joined by Paul Currie on the scoresheet. Four years on and strikes from Steve Newing and George Duck saw Uxbridge beaten 2-1 in the Middlesex Charity Cup and set-up a semi-final against Wembley.

In 1987 Iain Dowie’s goal wasn’t enough to stop the Greens falling to a 2-1 defeat at Bishop’s Stortford and then in 1995 a brace from Nick Sweetman along with another goal from Phil Gallagher saw Harrow Borough dumped out of the Middlesex Senior Cup 3-1 at Claremont Road.

Three years later in 1998, as the Serbian police began their offence in Kosovo, a visit to Kingstonian ended in defeat, the K’s winning 2-1 and Paul Whitmarsh grabbing the Hendon goal before two years further on in 2000 Northwood knocked the Greens out of the Middlesex Senior Cup, winning 1-0 at Meadow Avenue.

There was a distinct improvement in 2004 as a visit to Hitchin Town’s Top Field saw Dave Anderson’s side romp to a 4-1 win thanks to goals from Eugene Ofori, Ricci Crace and substitutes Dale Binns and Pat Gavin on the same day that more than 1 million Taiwanese took part in the Hand-in-Hand rally to form a human chain more than 300 miles long to commemorate the 228 massacre in 1947 in which anti-government uprisings were brutally put down by the Nationalist Chinese forces with tens of thousands of deaths.

The Greens went one better in 2009 as Harlow Town were beaten 5-0 at Vale Farm to ease relegation fears against a set of fellow strugglers. Peter Dean scored twice along with goals from Brian Haule, Lee O’Leary and Jamie Busby to see the Essex side off convincingly. A couple of years later another visit to Kingstonian in 2011 saw the K’s win 3-0, Dan Sintim seeing red for Hendon as he picked up his second dismissal in just over three weeks.

We end with cheerful tidings as a 2012 London Senior Cup quarter final derby against Harrow Borough ended in a 2-1 win for the Greens thanks to a couple of strikes from Belal Aite-ouakrim before Kezie Ibe was the man with both goals in 2015 as momentum continued to pick-up at Earlsmead against struggling Witham Town in a routine 2-0 success.

Across 21 matches to have been played on 28th February there have been a dozen wins, 2 draws and 7 defeats. 49 goals have been scored and 28 conceded.