Hendon's pre-season preparations came to an end on Tuesday night with a 2-0 defeat at Hemel Hempstead Town, who are managed by former Hendon favourites Steve Bateman and Mark Dawber.

The first half began with the home side having the advantage and controlling the first fifteen minutes or so forcing Richard Wilmot into a couple of decent saves. However after that the Greens came back into the game and probably ended the half on top. The best chances for Hendon fell to Dean Thomas and René Street who both saw their headed efforts narrowly miss the target.

Gary McCann made six changes at half time, having seen enough to know what his starting line up would be on Saturday, to allow fringe players a chance to lay claim to a place in the team. However, the second half performance started poorly and in the 49th minute Paul Edgeworth opened the scoring for Hemel.

Shortly after the hour mark Wayne O'Sullivan drove a free kick wide of the goal, but almost immediately Hemel doubled the lead when poor defending let in Mark Skinner. The only other Hendon chances in the second period fell to Jimmy Froud and Lamelle Williams who both saw their efforts go over the bar.