Hendon produced a disappointing performance as they lost 2-1 at home to a Margate team which played with an almost immobile goalkeeper for an hour. As bad nights at the office go, this was one of the worst. Margate came into the game, sitting one place off the bottom of the Ryman League Premier Division table and if Hendon had won, they would have ended the night level on points with the team in third spot.

Playing a second match in three days, Hendon rested a few players, James Parker, Peter Dean, Lubomir Guentchev and Yacine Hamada making way for Pat O'Donnell, Glenn Garner, Harry Hunt, and Wayne O'Sullivan. All bar Parker joined James Burgess and Casey Maclaren on the subs bench.

The match had a dramatic opening when Garner – making his first start of the season – collapsed to his knees on the edge of the Margate box. Margate goalkeeper Paul Nicholls saw the problems and screamed at the referee to stop play.

It turned out that the striker had swallowed a fly but after treatment from Mark Findlay he was able to continue. It is not known whether a spider was used.

There were few chances at either end in a disjointed half. Both teams had a couple of half-chances, which they failed to take. The only real talking point was a bad challenge by Kevin Maclaren, which earned him a yellow card.

Then, after 33 minutes, out of almost nothing, Hendon were awarded a penalty. A free-kick into the Margate penalty area was dealt with by Ben Lewis, but the referee spotted a shirt-pull by Lloyd Blackman and awarded a spot-kick.

The normally reliable Jamie Busby's effort was powerful, but straight at Nicholls who blocked the ball back to him. Busby's rebound effort was better, and so was the save by goalkeeper, who wrenched his ankle in trying to recover his ground.

Although Margate had a substitute goalkeeper on the bench, Terry Yorath and Neville Southall - the latter of whom knows a thing or two about goalkeeping - decided that one of the loudest and best organising goalkeepers in the Ryman League was a better bet on one leg than his replacement might have been on two.

Nicholls had to make one save late in the first half, but what would normally have been a relatively comfortable stop of a James Bent shot was an agonising one for the keeper.

The second half was better than the first but Hendon really missed a trick or two with their play. Margate, magnificently marshalled by John Keister, played as though the penalty area was 40 metres long so forced Hendon to attack from much greater range, thus protecting Nicholls. It worked a treat.

But before the drama of the second half could unfold, Hendon found themselves in trouble as substitute Dean got himself red-carded for comments to the assistant referee just before half-time. Although the Greens were not left short-handed on the pitch, it limited the substitute options and Dean’s experience and guile may have made the difference in unlocking the vistors' defence.

Nevertheless, Hendon did take the lead after 60 minutes when Garner unleashed a magnificent drive into the top corner. Even a fit Nicholls would probably not have got close to the shot.

After the goal, Nicholls turned to the fans behind the goal and remarked, "I patted him on the back when he was choking in the first half and that's what he did to thank me."

Seven minutes later, the scores were level when an error from James Reading gifted Jack Haverson the chance to slot home. It was doubly annoying because there had been little danger when Mark Kirby committed the foul for the free-kick which led to the equaliser.

Almost immediately, Kevin Maclaren, already cautioned, was given a stern lecture by the referee for dissent and was immediately substituted, creating the unusual circumstance of one brother, Casey, replacing the other.

Disappointingly, Hendon could not respond positively to the equaliser. Although Dave Diedhiou and Craig Vargas added width to a number of attacks, Margate continued to frustrate Hendon at every turn and the Greens didn't really look like breaking down the white wall set up outside the penalty area. Five minutes after the Maclarens had switched Garner was replaced by Hamada, but the substitute's playing style didn’t pose anything like the problems Garner’s had.

Adding to Hendon's woes was an injury to Bent, who limped off with four minutes of normal time remaining. It was just as well that the Hendon bench had decided not to withdraw one of a few underperforming players for tactical reasons as the Greens searched for a second goal. Guentchev replaced Bent, but he didn't really have time to make an impact.

And it was no surprise to the home faithful when, in the last minute of normal time, after Hendon had lost possession on the half-way line, a diagonal ball into the penalty area went between Reading and Kirby and it allowed Blackman the chance to nip in and score.

Greens boss Gary McCann disagreed that the Hendon performance had been shambolic, but he did concede that a number of other unflattering adjectives were accurate.

"I have not be as angry as I am tonight for a long while," he admitted. "We spoke about the goalkeeper situation at half-time and told the players to shoot more, but we seemed more concerned about scoring the perfect goal.

"We conceded two terrible goals - from our own making - after scoring a really good one. And we had a number of players who were not at the races."