Hendon suffered what was easily their most embarrassing defeat of the almost five years of Gary McCann's managerial reign when they were defeated on penalties by Hanworth Villa in the Middlesex Senior Cup on Tuesday night. Statistically, Hendon have at least three times lost to club more than the two levels lower than Hanworth Villa, most recently in a 1996 Isthmian League Cup tie against Leighton Town, but that doesn't make it any the easier to suffer.

There were a number of changes to the team which had seen off South Kilburn three days earlier, with Jamie Busby and Lee O'Leary both making their first Hendon starts after lengthy injury layoffs and Berkley Laurencin, Dave Diedhiou, Peter Dean also getting starts. Left out were the suspended Kevin Maclaren, plus Yacine Hamada, Lubomir Guentchev, James Reading and Billy Dunn.

What made Hendon's failure to advance to a meeting with Northwood even more unpalatable was the performance in the opening 30 minutes. On a bitterly cold night, Hendon warmed their fans with a totally dominant display which brought two goals and promised many more.

Two very close offside decisions had already halted promising Hendon moves when, in the 12th minute, more pressure led to a corner. Scott Cousins curled the ball into the penalty area and Casey Maclaren timed his run perfectly before heading into the net, just inside the unguarded near post.

Terry Buss made a couple of saves as the Villains defence was frequently shredded by incisive passing and running. In the 30th a beautiful back-heeled pass by Peter Dean fed Maclaren, who passed the ball out to the left wing. The cross came in and there was Dean to apply the coup de grace.

Within a minute, the first worrying moment for Hendon came when a challenge from Adam Piggott left James Parker lying on the ground in obvious pain. The striker was cautioned and Parker was carried off the pitch, always a worrying sight, especially given his recent problems with injuries.

This, thankfully, was not a muscle or ligament injury, but a puncture wound which required hospital treatment later in the evening and Parker was able to return to the fray for the final few minutes of the opening half.

A stupid challenge, just inside the Hendon penalty area, a minute into first half stoppage time, gifted Hanworth Villa the chance to get back into the match. Piggott took the spot-kick and drilled it straight down the middle. As Laurencin dived to one side, the ball ruffled the net.

Danny Dyer came on for Parker in the second half and Hendon were forced into a reshuffle, James Bent partnering James Burgess in the middle of the defence. Three minutes into the period, Hanworth had their first shot on target form open play, a strike Laurencin saved comfortably.

Hendon were more than comfortable with their narrow lead, but their play was nonetheless woeful. The passing was poor, there was little or no urgency, but plenty of sloppiness which resulted in easy losses of possession in potentially dangerous situations.

A double switch, Dunn and Guentchev replacing Maclaren and Busby, made things far worse, because they were two of the players least blameless for the shambolic performance. Most worrying and annoying was the fact that numerous openings in the Villains defence were not exploited because shots and/or crosses were aimless. Terry Buss made two saves but was not put under enough pressure.

Hanworth Villa completed their substitutions when Piggott and Darren Noad joined Dan Whatford (replaced at the interval by Matt Baines) on the bench, Shaun Preddie and Lee Willis, respectively, entering the fray.

As the match moved into stoppage time, Hendon launched another attack which broke down just outside the Hanworth Villa penalty area. The ball was cleared downfield and went over the head of James Burgess. Suddenly Lee Higgs had a clear run at goal, but it was ended in illegal fashion by Diedhiou, just inside the Hendon penalty area.

It was an obvious goal-scoring opportunity and the referee had no hesitation in first pointing to the spot and then showing Diedhiou a red card. Hendon's third in five matches, two of which had been for professional fouls. Higgs' penalty was a much better effort than Piggott's in the first half, and it got the same result.

Thirty seconds after play resumed, the referee brought proceedings to a halt. In 90 minutes, Hendon had created 15 good openings, put five efforts on target and scored twice; Hanworth Villa had created four good openings, put three efforts on target, and scored with a pair of penalties.

Playing with ten men in extra time, Hendon reshuffled defensively for the second time. Cousins dropped to left back and Craig Vargas joined Burgess ind defence as Bent was pushed further forward. O'Leary had a chance to give Hendon the lead again when he rose unmarked at the far post, but his header grazed the outside of the upright.

Terry Buss, who was lucky to escape injury when he collided with his cousin Tony Buss - it's not often one sees a Buss crash at a football match - did pull of a couple of excellent saves, but Hendon still seemed lethargic and unwilling to take responsibility for shots on goal. A perfect example of this was a quick free-kick which released Guentchev. He should have shot at goal because the angle wasn't that difficult and no defenders were covering, but he decided to cross the ball and neither Dean nor Dunn were close to it.

Almost inevitably - Hendon's five previous ventures into extra time this season and last had all required penalty shoot-outs 0 there were no goals in the additional 30 minutes and it meant another bout of spot-kicks.

Guentchev was first up for Hendon but his spot-kick was weak and straight at the goalkeeper, who saved easily. It proved to be a costly failure because although Dyer, Dunn, Dean and Bent all converted their spot-kicks without fuss, Laurencin never looked like making a save against the five Hanworth takers and when the 10th and final penalty of the shoot-out flew into the net, Hendon, Middlesex Senior Cup finalists in 2008 and 2009, were out at the first hurdle.

"I was embarrassed by that performance," said a furious McCann, "and I let the players know how I felt in the dressing rooms after the game. Too many players didn't put in the effort. We were loose, lethargic and lazy and it was totally unacceptable.

"We created more than 20 chances and scored two goals, which is indicative of our problems with strikers. But we were never really in trouble. They had only a handful of chances and scored with penalties in stoppage time at the end of each half.

"I took off Casey Maclaren, who had been excellent because he has played in every match since he came back, and Jamie Busby was tiring after being out for so long."