Hendon's first point of this season came in their fifth game, at Heybridge, and it was considered an excellent draw. Almost eight months later, a 1-1 draw in the reverse fixture was met with some disappointment. This, possibly more than any other result, shows just how far the Greens have come as the season progressed.

After two successive wins, Hendon didn't want to make any changes. But with Dean Green serving a suspension, and Darragh Duffy nursing an injury Brian Haule and Wayne O'Sullivan came into the starting line-up and Ross Pickett and Dale Archer returned to the bench.

On a truly gorgeous afternoon, the heat and lack of pressure on both teams resulted in a first-half utterly in keeping with a glorious, lazy afternoon sitting or standing outdoors. Unfortunately for those fans hoping for a match of cut and thrust, they were disappointed. This was as strong a rebuttal as was needed to supporters of summer football.

For 27 minutes, nothing of note happened. Heybridge had one corner, which Richard Wilmot caught and Belal Aiteouakrim fired over after doing quite well to make a half opening for himself.

Then, out of nothing, a 50-yard diagonal ball from Danny Barber reached Mark Reddaway, who had just about muscled his way in front of James Parker. Still under pressure from the defender, Reddaway could only side-foot the ball wide of the target.

In the 32nd minute, Brian Haule limped off, being replaced by Takumi Ake. Five minutes later, O'Sullivan had the ball in the net, but he was clearly offside and although he shot into the net it came as the referee's whistled to halt play.

The second half had to be better than the first and it certainly was. Hendon had the better of it, but failed to take full advantage.

They made an excellent start. In the 53rd minute, Parker took a free-kick in the centre-circle. Aiteouakrim controlled the ball on his chest, turning his marker as he did so. Danny Gay came off his line, but Aiteouakrim, lifted the ball over him with the most delicate of chips to score a quite superb goal.

Hendon remained on top for most of the remainder of the game and while Barber and Ian Wiles both were cautioned for crude challenges that stopped promising Hendon raids, Philip Goodwin was lucky not to join them in the referee's notebook.

O'Sullivan forced Gay into making a good save after 59 minutes. The goalkeeper then produced an even better stop to keep the ball out from the same player, but it would not have counted because O'Sullivan had again strayed offside.

Gay's heroics were not finished and the former Southend keeper produced one of the saves of the season to keep the score down to 1-0 after 70 minutes. His reactions were lightning quick as he parried Davis Haule's header from a Marc Leach free-kick. Although it was mainly instinctive, Gay managed to push the ball away from the goal.

After 72 minutes, Reddaway nearly fashioned an equaliser out of nothing, but his lob was tipped over the bar by Wilmot, who had to backtrack furiously to reach the ball as it dropped goalwards.

Heybridge's equaliser, after 81 minutes, came against the run of play. An attack down the left side resulted in the ball being played into the middle, where the Hendon defence was suddenly absent and Gary Burrell was the successful one of a number of Swifts waiting to pounce.

In the final few minutes, neither side was able to fashion a clear opening, and the game drifted to the stalemate conclusion that had appeared obvious after about five minutes.