Hendon slipped back into the relegation mire following their 2-0 defeat at Short Lane on a Saturday afternoon to forget.

Things started to go wrong for Hendon from the moment Darragh Duffy and Ross Pickett failed fitness tests. Takumi Ake came in for his first start for the Greens since returning from his spell at Wembley.

Less than 30 seconds had elapsed when matters got even worse for Hendon. Dean Green had his foot stamped on - deliberately, he felt - and he reacted by pushing Ricky Wellard away which sent him to the ground. The assistant referee saw the first incident, but as the referee had seen the second, decided to do nothing about it.

The outcome was that Green was dismissed and the free-kick was awarded to Ashford. It was a foolish act by Hendon's leading scorer, and it left the match official with little alternative but to produce the sanction he did.

Ashford needed barely three minutes to take full toll of their man advantage - they also had the strong wind blowing at their backs.

A cross came in from the left wing and was partially cleared. The ball, however, fell to Wellard, who shot early from the edge of the penalty area. Richard Wilmot was unsighted as the ball travelled passed a forest of legs and, by the time he had got down to make a save, the ball was past him and nestling in the net.

Ashford were in complete control, but they didn't create too many good openings. The back four of Wayne O'Sullivan, Craig Vargas, Parker and Marc Leach were augmented by midfielders James Busby, James Burgess and Rakatahr Hudson, leaving Belal Aiteoakrim and Ake hopelessly isolated up front.

When Hendon did force some set-pieces in and around the Ashford goal, they were generally wasted, two free-kicks being overhit into the wind and a couple of corners failing to find green shirts.

Not that Ashford created much. They were equally wasteful from set pieces, apart from one corner which led to a header from Steve Battams, but it was off-target. From open play, Scott Todd was also off-target with a snap shot.

Hendon's awful first half came to an end with a second goal being conceded. A cross deceived Wayne O'Sullivan, whose header bounced across the six-yard box, Johnson beat the off-balance Burgess to the bouncing ball and knocked it into the net.

With the wind in their favour in the second half, Hendon almost totally wasted it. Paul Burgess - struggling with a groin injury in the Ashford goal - had almost nothing to do. He had made a comfortable save from Aiteouakrim in the first half and made a slightly more difficult one from the same player after the break.

A free-kick from Leach went narrowly wide, Ake fired into the side-netting and also had a shot blocked. That was pretty much the some of noteworthy Hendon attempts.

Ashford did have the ball in the Hendon net for a third time late in the second half, but an offside flag had gone up long before Jon Palmer, on for Todd, met the ball. Such was the lack of quality or invention from the hosts against a short-handed and tiring team, that Wilmot had only one good save to make, that in the 82nd minute, when he tipped over a header from Gavin Bamford that had bounced in front of him.

"We had to play for 90 minutes with ten men and we couldn't do it," said manager Gary McCann. "We didn't play well and looked tired."