Not for the first time this season, Hendon's efforts were rewarded with nothing other than a defeat as they went down to a 2-1 defeat at Billericay Town on a heavy but perfectly playable New Lodge pitch on Saturday afternoon. Credit must go to the groundstaff at Billericay for making the pitch playable after the heavy overnight rain.

The Greens made two changes to their starting line up with Wayne O'Sullivan replacing Chris Robinson, and Davis Haule replacing James Burgess. Robinson and Burgess joined Jazz Rose, Takumi Ake and new signing Darragh Duffy, a striker previously with Guernsey side Belgrave Wanderers, on the bench.

Hendon started very brightly and had the first shot on target in the 5th minute when Marc Leach fired in a low free-kick that Billericay keeper Ronnie Worster saved comfortably. Two minutes later the home side registered their first shot when Matt Game fired wide of Richard Wilmot's goal.

For the next twenty minutes the Greens largely controlled the game, with much of the play taking place in the Billericay half. Belal Aiteouakrim had a shot well saved after good set up work by Craig Vargas and Jamie Busby while Lee O'Leary couldn't quite make contact with another free-kick from Leach.

In the 24th minute Aiteouakrim had another good chance saved after he had made a good run, and before the half hour mark O'Leary had two more chances narrowly miss the target.

The opening goal came against the run of play in the 29th minute when the Hendon defence failed to deal with a breakaway by Billericay and Billy Holland made the most of it and scored.

Five minutes later the Greens were forced to make a change when Craig Vargas picked up an injury after fouling a Billericay player. Vargas was replaced by Chris Robinson.

Having scored the opener, Billericay then had the best of the rest of the half although in the 42nd minute Hendon did have a chance when a Leach free-kick was well saved by Worster and Brian Haule's follow up was also saved.

Billericay made an early change in the second half when Chris Whelpdale replaced Leon Hunter who was struggling with an injury. The substitute made an immediate impact in the 54th minute when he latched on to a cross to slam the ball past Wilmot to double the lead.

The Greens then changed things around as Takumi Ake replaced Dean Green as they looked to get back into the game. In the 65th minute Hendon had their best chance so far of the game when a good strike from Leach flew inches wide of the goal.

However, five minutes later Hendon were rewarded for their efforts when Belal Aiteouakrim fired home a fine free kick from around 20 yards. The free kick was so fiercely struck that Worster barely had time to react as the ball flew into the net.

Hendon piled on the pressure and in the 76th minute had a chance to equalise when a Davis Haule header was saved. Two minutes later Leach made an outstanding intervention to prevent a third Billericay goal.

The home side then had what looked to be a strong penalty shout turned down when Robinson appeared to handle the ball in the area, but the referee was left unimpressed by the appeals coming from the Billericay supporters. Late on Davis Haule had another attempt go just wide when he met a corner with his head.

"We gave absolutely everything today" said manager Gary McCann after the game. "I really can't complain about our performance today and I feel that we were unlucky not to get something from the game."