Hendon's home season came to a disappointing end on Saturday afternoon when they were beaten by a Salisbury City team whose experience manipulated the match. That is not to say that they were not the better, but City players' consistently upheld appeals to the referee suggested the whistle-blower was under their influence too.

Dean Coppard came into the side for Steve McGrath, while James Burgess replaced Dave Hunt. Eugene Ofori and goalkeeper Derek Lewis came onto the bench at the expense of Danny Blanchett and Bradley Bubb. Lewis was involved because Dave King suffered a foot injury during the week and was clearly hampered all afternoon.

It took just six minutes for Hendon to take the lead. John Frendo did the original spade work, beating a couple of opponents before riding another challenge. However, when two defenders dispossed Frendo just outside the penalty area, referee Sean Comerford ruled an earlier challenge to have been illegal and so awarded a free-kick.

Shayne Demetrious delivered a perfect ball, one that invited a goalbound header and and unmarked René STREET duly obliged, flicking the ball just inside the near post.

Five minutes later, Hendon almost doubled their advantage. The source was the same a dead-ball kick beautifully delivered by Demetrious but, this time, it was defender Matthew Jones who nearly beat Kevin Sawyer. The keeper was at full stretch as he tipped the ball over the bar. From the resulting corner, the ball fell to Jason O'Connor, whose fierce shot was clearly on target before it struck a defender.

Salisbury gradually took control of the game. In the 24th minute, a downfield punt from Sawyer should have been dealt with by Coppard, but the centre-half allowed himself to be knocked away by Matthew Tubbs. The ball fell to Wayne TURK, who made no mistake with an early, low drive which arrowed into the bottom corner.

In attack, Hendon were frequently caught offside and on more than one occasion the player flagged looked questioningly at the referee's assistant, who seemed to make decisions based on the ball's arrival at the player, rather than when it was played forward. One such case involved Marvyn Watson, who was clearly behind a defender when Danny Julienne played the ball into space behind the back-line, but the flag still went up after he sprinted forward to reach it.

King, who was clearly struggling, was subjected to an aerial bombardment and the goalkeeper, who got little protection from the referee to the buffetting he took from Salisbury forwards, often needed two or three attempts to gather the ball. He also made a fine save to deny Scott Bartlett in the 38th minute.

Gary Meakin replaced Coppard at half-time, with O'Connor going to the centre of defence and the sub taking up his usual right back role. The Wiltshire club continued to have the balance of play, but it was the Greens who were the aggrieved party in the 53rd minute.

A cross from the right edge of the penalty area struck the outstretched hand of Aaron Cook by the penalty spot, deflecting the ball away from an unmarked Ross Pickett. Mr Comerford looked distinctly uncomfortable declining the penalty, almost as if expecting hassle from Hendon players for his cowardice.

Ofori was introduced at the expense of Julienne as Hendon tried to regain a foothold in the game with a three-man strike-force, but he couldn't work any magic. Instead the decisive goal went in at the other end.

James Parker timed his run to meet a bouncing ball quite well and appeared to be barged out of the way after winning the challenge. Amazingly, but probably because the Salisbury player appealed for it, the referee gave a free-kick to the City. That still doesn't the defences negligence in allowing JONES a free header from 12 yards and he placed it into the roof the net well out of King's reach.

"For 20 minutes, we played as well as we have done since I have been here," said manager Gary McCann, "but for the other 70 we were as bad as we have been. For the first time in 15 games we weren't at the races.

"But I was even more unhappy with the way the game went in regard to the decision making. Almost everything Salisbury appealed for, they got. We are going to have to learn to be more cute and work the system."