Hendon produced a most disappointing and flat display as they were well beaten by struggling Cray Wanderers at Hayes Lane, Bromley, on Saturday. The final scoreline of 2-0 flattered the Greens, who looked rusty after three weeks without a game against opponents who had played twice in a week.

The Greens named an unchanged starting 11 from the team which beat Harrow Borough at the start of January, though the bench did have the returning Dave Diedhiou and Wayne O'Sullivan.

It took less than 90 seconds for Cray to fashion the first opening the match. A long ball from Colin Luckett was touched on by George Porter and Marcus Cassius slid the ball towards goal. Only a last-gasp intervention by the covering James Burgess prevented goal.

From the inswinging corner which followed, James Reading punched the ball clear and then saved from John Guest who had a free header from six yards. It would not have counted because of an offside flag, but the goalkeeper didn't know that.

All the dangerous approach play came from the home team, while Hendon struggled to get anything going. Indeed it took 26 minutes for the Greens to create even a half-chance.

However, when Bradley Woods-Garness broke the well-marshalled Cray offside trap, he did have a clear run at goal. Pat Brennan came off his line and was relieved to watch the on-loan striker's attempted curling shot fly high and wide of the target.

It would be the first of two shots at goal mustered by Hendon players in a poor first half. The other, a long-range strike from Jamie Busby, after 41 minutes, never threatened the target.

By this time, Hendon were already a goal down. A free-kick from Ross Lover was met at the far post by Mark Willy and his header across goal was knocked into the net by the unmarked Porter.

Hendon started the second half a little more brightly, but they were unable to get past a resolute Cray defence, determined not to be breached. If their interventions weren't always entirely as they planned, fortune favours the brave and they certainly deserved the luck they received.

Porter nearly grabbed his second goal after 56 minutes when he met a left-wing cross, but the ball was hacked away from the goal-line. A minute later, the outside of a post denied Porter.

For the next five minutes, it seemed that every Cray attack would lead to a goal, but the closest they came to a goal was from an entirely different source. An underhit clearance from Reading reached only just past the half-way line.

Tommy Tyne summed up the situation in an instant and struck a curling right-foot shot towards the right post. Reading raced to get back as the ball bent towards the target. It bounced in a relatively dry part of the penalty area and caromed off the crossbar before going away to safety.

The first on-target shot from Hendon came in the 67th minute, when a drive from the edge of the penalty area was blocked by a defender with Brennan struggling to get into position to make a save.

Almost immediately, O'Sullivan replaced Craig Vargas, who had been injured by a nasty, very late tackle from behind.

At this point, Hendon's best chance of getting back into the game was to take advantage of Cray becoming frustrated as the chances went begging. Certainly a goal seemed far more likely to come from the home team than the visitors.

After 80 minutes, Hendon made their second change, replacing the other full-back, James Burgess, with another midfielder, Lee O'Leary, and this certainly gave the Greens added impetus.

Two minutes later, they almost snatched the most undeserved equaliser. A ball across the the penalty area was not dealt with and when Brennan pushed the ball weakly to O'Sullivan, the substitute had time to shoot at goal.

He beat Brennan with his shot, but it was sensibly placed rather than driven with great power. Unfortunately for him and Hendon, Lover raced back towards his line and did just enough to glance a header over the crossbar.

In the 86th minute, Cray sealed the points when Guest rose unchallenged to meet a corner and he planted a powerful header into the net.

Hendon manger Gary McCann was very unhappy with the performance and said, "As well as we defended in the first half, we were poor in the second.

"Our pretty, passing football was suffocated by their very effective physical style. It wasn't pretty, but it worked well and we couldn?t get going. We couldn?t get going against their narrow midfield.

"I think we were a little rusty and there was a lack of a competitive edge. We looked like we hadn't played for a few weeks and they played like a team which had been in two competitive matches in the past week."