Hendon slipped to another defeat against Ramsgate on Tuesday night, the third for the Greens against their Kent opponents and second in the Ryman League Premier Division, but they were left ruing a number of incidents that went against them. The biggest of these was the red card shown to Dean Green five minutes into the second half.

Ross Pickett's return at the expense of Bontcho Guentchev was the only change to the Hendon starting team that had beaten East Thurrock at the weekend and it was he who wasted the first of a number of excellent chances in the first half.

The runs of Brian Haule, Wayne O'Sullivan and Green caused the Ramsgate defence a number of problems and when they failed to make proper contact with a 14th minute cross, the ball fell straight to Pickett, whose shot was directly at Paul Wilkerson, who made the save. Had Pickett gone for either side of the goal, using placement rather than power, he would surely have scored.

In the 29th minute, Ashley Burton collected a yellow card for a cynical challenge that stopped Haule from turning and having an almost clear run at goal. The free-kick, 35 yards from goal, came to nothing.

Five minutes later, however, Hendon were doubly unfortunate not to take the lead. First, more unsure defending left Haule with an opening. However, a defender dived in and got just enough of a deflection to lift the ball against the crossbar and it was hacked away for a corner.

The corner eluded everyone, except Jon Munday beyond the far post. His header had just the wrong angle because it flew across the face of goal, no more than a couple of feet from the goalline, and just too far from a number of outstretched Hendon legs.

As the half ended, so Ramsgate began to get a grip on the game and, on a couple of occasions, crosses needed only the slightest of touches to be deflected in the goal, but none were forthcoming, so Hendon escaped.

Jazz Rose was withdrawn at half-time as Hendon reshuffled their line-up. Guentchev came on for him, dropping Green into a more defensive position, with O'Sullivan switching to the left side.

Two minutes into the second half, a fine save from Wilkerson denied James Burgess a goal following his powerful 25-yard drive. From the resulting half-cleared corner, Hendon had a chance to knock the ball back into the penalty area, but Rakatahr Hudson was dispossessed allowing Ramsgate to break quickly.

Green made a last-ditch challenge on the raider and was adjudged to have fouled him. The referee could not wait to produce the red card to send Green from the field.

The decision was at best borderline because the foul took place outside the penalty area and was by no means in a central position. Additionally, there was another defender coming to assist Green and the ball was not at the forward's feet. Also, the challenge was not dissimilar to the one committed by Burton in the first half, albeit 10 or so yards further from goal, which had resulted in a yellow card.

Had The referee taken a second or two longer to consider his options, he may have chosen to err on the side of caution, literally, something, the home bench were certain would have been correct. It turned the match from an otherwise even contest into a mismatch, but that, correctly, wasn't the referee's concern.

Within 20 seconds of Green disappearing towards the dressing room, Hendon were a goal behind. The free-kick was cleared away for a corner, but this restart was met by Dean Hill who made no mistake from close range.

Hendon tried to bounce back from this, but were very much on the back foot for the next ten or so minutes, Richard Wilmot making one excellent save to deny Shaun Welford. Then, in the 62nd minute, just as Hendon set up an excellent position for an equaliser another lost ball on the edge of the Ramsgate penalty area led to another goal.

This time it was Haule who dithered and lost possession. Two passes later the ball found Michael Yianni, who had all the time in the world to pick his spot and it was 2-0.

The Greens didn't give up and in the 75th minute both Guentchev and Haule had efforts cleared off the line. In truth, both players should have been able to place the ball away from defenders and really ought to have scored.

Instead, in stoppage time, the tired Hendon defence relaxed and a loose ball was pounced on by Stuart VAHID for another close-range tap-in.

Indicative of just how lopsided the final score was, was the comment from the Ramsgate manager, who reckoned his team were probably worth a point from the game and it was never a 3-0 result.