Hendon's first ever meeting with Ashford Town (Middlesex) in League action ended in a goalless stalemate. While it was another point collected, the feeling was that here was a great chance for all three to be taken.

The only change to the 16 on duty was the return of Dean Thomas to the substitutes bench. He came in for Oliver Stroud, who has returned to Braintree Town. Hendon also kept the same formation as Saturday, even though the attacking threat was significantly less.

Nevertheless it was Ashford who started better. They at least managed to put an early shot on target - Gavin Smith failing to trouble Richard Wilmot. In the seventh minute, a crude challenge on Takumi Ake resulted in a yellow card for Vinnie O'Sullivan. It meant he had to be very careful for the rest of the match, and he was, never coming close to a repeat offence.

In the 11th minute, Ross Pickett worked himself half an opening. He tried to lob Tony Wells - back at Claremont Road for the first time in ten seasons since leaving the Greens - but the big goalkeeper was able to watch the ball drift harmlessly over the crossbar.

Wilmot then did well diving to his right to keep out a sharp effort from Jacob Mingle, but it was a rare moment of alarm in either penalty area. After 33 minutes, Pickett tried his luck again with a lob and although it was a better attempt, the ball still failed to drop quickly enough for the Greens to make the breakthrough.

They did start the second half much better than the first. After 52 minutes, a header from Russell Canderton rebounded off Nas Richardson and although it took most of the pace off the ball, the deflection looped agonisingly just away from the angle of post and crossbar.

Ten minutes later, both teams made substitutions, Hendon introducing Wayne O'Sullivan and Jamie Busby for Ake and Richardson, respectively, while Lee Passmore took over from Darren Deegan. It was Ashford's second change as Scott Harris had replaced Smith moments after Richardson's effort.

Within a minute, Wells was grateful that Lee O'Leary's header had struck Steve Battams and made his save considerably easier than it might otherwise have been.

The final quarter of the match was very disappointing. Both teams brought the ball out of midfield but the final pass or cross into the penalty area was, almost without exception, nothing like as effective as it should have been. Typical of this was a run from Ryan Wharton which brought him some space for a shot. The strike, sadly, endangered only those standing high at the back of the terraces, well wide of the goal.

Mingle was withdrawn by Ashford, giving Ricky Wellard a dozen minutes to make an impression, while Jermaine Hunter had just less than ten minutes to show what he could do after coming on for Rakatahr Hudson.

Both teams were becoming more and more frustrated, and the whistle of the referee became ever more strident. It's not that the fouls were particularly malicious or dangerous, it's just that he spotted so many. The one bad challenge in the final ten minutes came from Jazz Rose and he was correctly cautioned.

In the end, the official played six minutes of stoppage time but it didn't seem likely that 60 would have brought a change in the scoreline.

"I am pleased with the way our defence played again tonight," said manager Gary McCann. "But we didn't do enough up front. We created a few openings but wasted them with bad balls from out wide. I changed the players in the second half, but the substitutes could do no better than those who started."