Hendon slipped back into bottom four at the end of a bad week for the club, losing not only a second consecutive match, but also captain Lee O'Leary. Boreham Wood's 2-1 success at Claremont Road was a triumph for canny experience over eager youth.

O'Leary - who joined AFC Wimbledon (and was sent off 35 minutes into his debut for them) - was replaced by Darragh Duffy, while Chris Robinson dropped to the bench with Craig Vargas fit to regain his place in defence.

The game had quite an explosive start. From the second of two free-kicks in the opening minute, Chris Bangura headed just over the angle of post and crossbar.

Thirty seconds later, at the other end, Belal Aiteouakrim should have given Hendon the lead, but stabbed the ball over the crossbar from about eight yards out.

In the fifth minute, Duffy made a good run into the penalty area and managed to reach a curled cross. Unfortunately, he didn't have the confidence to make powerful contact and did little more than stud the ball into the grateful arms of Noel Imber. More power, or a slightly different angle of contact would surely have given Hendon the lead.

In the 14th minute, Paul Armstrong had a great chance to put Boreham Wood in front when the ball was nicked away from the oncoming Richard Wilmot and Armstrong had an almost open goal to aim at. Instead of shooting for the middle of the goal, he tried to lift the ball over Wilmot and succeeded in missing the target to the right.

It proved a costly error, because Hendon took the lead barely a minute later. Davis Haule passed to Dean Green just on the edge of the centre-circle in the Wood half. Green took the ball forward and, when he was 25 metres out, he let fly with a beautiful dipping, swerving shot that flew over Imber, who was rooted to the spot and dropped just under the crossbar. Green's flying handstand celebration was almost as spectacular as the goal.

For the next quarter of an hour, Hendon were comfortable in the lead and it looked like they would double their advantage almost every time they brought the ball forward. The second goal, however, would not come and the Greens paid a heavy price.

In the 31st minute, the Hendon defence failed to defend a cross and, after a session of head-tennis just inside the Hendon box, Byron Harrison planted a looping header over Wilmot and just inside the angle of post and crossbar. It signalled the end of Hendon's domination and Wood took over control of the game.

Just as it seemed that the Greens had weathered the storm and reached half-time all-square, they pushed the self-destruct button. It started with a rash challenge by Vargas on Greg Morgan in the last seconds of the period. He was deservedly cautioned for the challenge.

The free-kick was well flighted, but not a single Hendon player followed Harrison's run and his header beat Wilmot. Unfortunately for the Hendon keeper although the ball didn't enter the goal immediately, it did once it had bounced off the post and his head on the rebound.

Even though the weather deteriorated in Hendon's favour, with the wind picking up significantly and blowing at their backs, they did little in the way of creating opportunities. In the 49th minute, both Haule and Aiteouakrim had the opportunity to shoot at goal from 12 yards, but they blocked each other out and the ball was hastily cleared.

Smith was in his element. Bullying and cajoling his team-mates, he ensured Wood used every tactic in the book to disrupt Hendon. Players went down after minimal contact and were slow to get up, Imber took as long as he desired to release the ball downfield and space was denied to any Hendon player with the ball. It wasn't pretty, but it was effective and it wasn't until Takumi Ake came on for the final quarter-hour - apart from a Marc Leach free-kick which was easily gathered by Imber - that anything even opened up for the Greens.

In the 85th minute, a diagonal ball eluded Marvin Samuel and should have given Ake and easy chance. Unfortunately, the young striker let the ball bounce off his arm and roll into the waiting chest of Imber. Then, in the 90th minute, Ake darted onto a loose ball and diverted it goalwards from an incredibly acute angle, but it had too much pace and rolled across the face of goal, missing the far post by inches.

"I am very disappointed with the performance today," said manager Gary McCannn. "We were coasting at 1-0 up and looking good. But then we conceded a poor goal defensively and we weren't at the races again. I hate to say it, but we really missed Lee O'Leary today."