Hendon's first visit to Harlow Town's new Barrows Farm ground on Saturday was certainly one to forget. This was the Greens' fourth consecutive Ryman League Premier Division defeat, this time 3-1, and there can be doubting they got all they deserved.

There were two changes to the team which had performed so well at Staines four days earlier: Richard Wilmot and Sam Collins returning to the side at the expense of Luke Blackmore and James Burgess, who were on the subs' bench.

It would have been nice to describe some football in the opening 20 minutes, but there was precious little of that on offer. Tackles flew in from all angles and players went thudding to the turf, with Hendon on the wrong end of the majority of them. However, the referee ruled that no cautions were necessary.

In the 21st minute, Hendon built up a fine move down the right flank. Sam Page cut inside and ran parallel to the goalline inside the penalty area. As he delivered a cross which eluded Guentchev's attempted diving header by inches, Hasell fell into Page.

The goalkeeper lay almost motionless on the ground holding his knee and, after four minutes of treatment, he was stretchered from the field. On came Michael Demoulin, the Hawks' regular substitute goalkeeper. Within 90 seconds he was on his knees stopping a Jamie Busby shot which had taken a deflection and slowed it to a snail's pace.

In the 32nd minute, Hendon's enterprise and domination bore fruit. Guentchev chased an overhit through ball from Casey Maclaren, and he just reached the ball before it went out for a goal kick. The cross, however, went out of play, but Shaun Gliddon needlessly dived in and brought down Guentchev. It was an obvious penalty and should also have been a yellow-card offence, but none was shown.

Brian Haule took over spot-kick duties from his brother Davis and although Dumoulin did get a hand on the spot-kick it was hard enough and low enough, too, to beat him. Disappointingly, this proved to be the high point of the afternoon for Hendon.

In the first half hour, the only real impressions made by Harlow players were on their opposite numbers, but the goal jolted them into more footballing action. And it took them only six minutes to fashion an equaliser.

It came from a silly challenge on the edge of the penalty area, a second defender bundling over Raphael Sylvester as the first marker was dealing with the danger successfully enough. Wilmot lined up a three-man wall, but it was not enough as Dave Lee struck a viciously swerving, dipping effort beyond the wall and Wilmot's dive. The keeper got the fingertips of one hand to the ball, but could not divert it from the goal.

From here on, the game belonged to Harlow. First to the ball, faster and stronger, Hendon were left looking for scraps and there were none to be found. Adding to the Greens' frustration was the performance of the referee, whose penalising of the Haule brothers in particular bordered on persecution. Unsurprisingly, both ended up with cautions.

Moments after Davis had joined Brian - and Alan Massey in the notebook, Harlow took a 48th minute lead. A deep cross from the left wing deceived Wilmot, who ended up colliding with Massey, who would have been able to clear the ball without trouble. Instead, the ball fell to ground, close to Danny Hill, whose cross fell invitingly for Sylvester, who tapped in from two yards out.

A thoroughly unsatisfactory second half had little to commend itself for Hendon. On only two occasions did the Greens look like getting back into the game. First, a free-kick from Guentchev beat Dumoulin but the ball scraped off the top of the crossbar and bounced away to safety.

Wilmot had to be smartly off his line to smother a run from Leon Lalite. Although the Harlow man went down in the challenge it was clear the ball had long since been parried to safety. And Wilmot also did well to push aside another free-kick from Lee.

At the other end, Marc Leach rose well at the far post to meet a free-kick from Page. His header, however, went more across the face of goal than towards it and although Brian Haule was able to control the ball, he could not get any power behind a shot and it was blocked to safety.

Thirteen minutes from time, Harlow got their third goal and it came from the penalty spot. Dean Williams had only been on the field a couple of minutes before he ran in on goal. Wilmot seemed to push the ball away before making contact with the former Wingate & Finchley man. However, crucially the referee disagreed and Lee made no mistake from the penalty spot.

"Our second half wasn't good enough, at either end of the pitch," said an angry Hendon manager Gary McCann. "We were very good for the first half hour or so but once we conceded were poor. We got very frustrated."