Hendon failed to derail Hastings United's playoff push at Vale Farm on Tuesday night, taking the lead early in the second half but eventually succumbing to a 3-1 defeat.

The frantic end to the season meant that there was a rotation of the Greens' albeit limited personnel for the starting line-up.

Hastings started very strongly and the Hendon defence was at full stretch keeping out a number of dangerous raids. Laurencin made a good save to deny Ross Treleaven, but the visitors' failed to turn their possession advantage into anything tangible.

With the wind in their faces, Hendon tried to keep the ball on the ground, but the suddenly rock-hard surface made things very tricky. Guentchev had one early run which came to nothing as a phalanx of maroon shirts crowded him out. Gradually the Greens began to exert some control, but they found centre-half Sean Ray in dominant form and Hendon couldn't put an effort on target.

Five minutes before half-time, a through ball for Dean to run onto bounced into the arms of Steve Williams, only because the striker had been pulled back by Nathan Russell. The free-kick, just outside the penalty area, didn't cause the goalkeeper any problems.

A minute later, Russell made another mistimed challenge on Dean, one the wily striker saw coming and was able to avoid. The referee ruled that no offence had occurred and allowed play to continue.

Having the wind at their backs in the second half was of little advantage to Hendon, as much because of tight defending as it was because of passes being overhit.

The Greens had a loud penalty appeal turned down after 55 minutes when an attempted block of a Guentchev cross by Jimmy Elford bounced off his arm and went out of play.

After 64 minutes, Vargas tried to reach a ball as it bounced in the Hastings penalty area following a corner, but a defender got to the ball first and cleared the danger, inadvertently catching the Hendon player into the bargain. Vargas was unable to continue and he was immediately replaced by Diedhiou.

From the throw-in, the ball was helped into the penalty area and landed at the feet of Casey Maclaren. Although there was a defender right on his back, Maclaren was able to squirm around him and, with only Williams to beat, slipped the ball just inside the near post.

Hendon's lead lasted barely two minutes. A ball was played into the Greens' box and when it wasn't well cleared, Treleaven fired a powerful strike just inside the left post.

Hastings took the lead with 13 minutes to and it was a most unfortunate goal to concede from a Hendon standpoint. A good run down the left flank by Tyrone Sterling (who had replaced Liam Upton immediately after United's equaliser) opened up the Greens' defence, but his cross seemed to be fairly innocuous with Cousins handily positioned to deal with it.

As Cousins turned to deal with the danger, he unfortunately ran into the referee and was knocked to the ground. Laurencin raced out of his goal to deal with what was now a much more difficult situation, but Treleaven got to the ball first and fired it into the net from an acute angle.

Chasing the game, Hendon committed more men to attack and, in the first minute of stoppage time, took off Burgess and replaced him with Pelecaci for his Hendon debut. He didn't have time to touch the ball before Hastings had added a third goal.

A ball out of defence found three Hastings players faced by only Diedhiou. Treleaven reached the ball first knocked it past the Hendon player and, with options right and left, took the latter to give Sterling the chance to shoot and score.

"I told my players in the dressing room after the game that the referee didn't cost us the match tonight," said a disappointed Hendon manager Gary McCann. "It was our poor defending. That said, we didn't get the crucial decisions going our way."