Hendon's unbeaten run in preseason friendlies came to a juddering halt at Claremont Road on Tuesday night when a very confident Yeading outfit won 3-0.

Even though the Greens hit the Yeading bar in both the first and last nine minutes (Kieran Gallagher and Kevin Chakaodza being the unlucky players), Yeading also hit the woodwork a couple of times and wasted many more clear opportunities.

The first incident of note saw Delroy Preddie continue his unfortunate habit of courting controversy at Claremont Road. In the fourth minute, he was fouled by John Frendo. It was neither malicious nor dangerous - merely a slight clip of the ankle as the goalkeeper tried to dribble away from him - but Preddie reacted with a two-handed shove in the retreating Frendo's back, sending him to the floor.

Frendo got up, eyed Preddie as if to ask, "what was that for?", and was then barged in the chest. A few players ran in to the incident, but it was well calmed down by referee David Belbin. He spoke with Frendo briefly before giving Preddie a long lecture.

In the ninth minute, Gallagher took a quick free-kick from 30 yards out and Preddie produced an acrobatic save to tip the ball against the crossbar and over it. From the resulting corner, Yeading broke away and Marvin MORGAN finished off the quick counter-attack with an incisive finish.

Three minutes later, the Ding doubled their lead when Charlie MAPES received a pass 25 metres from goal and he drilled a superb shot past Dave King.

Frendo and Eugene Ofori had a couple of half-chances to reduce the arrears and a block from Mark Leach deflected away a Mark Burgess attempt, although Preddie may well have been able to make a save.

But the speed and trickery of Yeading's front men opened up the Hendon defence on a number of occasions; only the final touch or measured finish was missing. Until, that is, in the 36th minute, David Clarke cut in from the left wing and drilled a shot that Dave King let slip from his grasp and MORGAN had the simplest of tap-ins to make it 3-0.

That proved to be the end of the scoring, but both teams spurned some good opportunities in a disappointing second half which saw substitutions made at regular intervals break up any continuity there may have been. Chakaodza had Hendon's best chance of the period, but when he beat the Yeading substitute goalkeeper, the bar denied him.