Hendon left themselves with far too much to do after conceding three goals in the opening 24 minutes to playoff-chasing Sutton United at Gander Green Lane on Saturday. Although the Greens won the remainder of the match 1-0 and were, for long parts, the better team, they were taught a harsh lesson in chance-taking.

James Reading, Bradley Thomas and Danny Dyer came into the starting line-up at the expense of Berkley Laurencin, James Burgess and Lubomir Guentchev, Thomas playing against his former club. Sutton had one former Hendon player in their 16, substitute and player-coach Steve McKimm, who played for the Greens sixteen years ago

The Hendon self-destruct button was pushed after just five minutes when they conceded a corner and proceeded to leave Steve Perkins completely unmarked when the ball was curled into the penalty area. Perkins' header squeezed between Reading and the defender guarding the far post to give Sutton the lead.

Five minutes later, fine skill from Anthony Joseph gave United their second goal. He beat three players before shooting past Reading, but the Hendon management team felt, with some justification, that the striker should have been tackled before he shot.

In the next eight minutes, Hendon had three chances to reduce the arrears. From the restart, Hendon worked the ball forward and a good pass from Peter Dean released Dyer, who passed to Jamie Busby.

Busby's low cross picked out an unmarked Casey Maclaren, but his first touch was a little too heavy. It allowed the recovering Perkins to half block Maclaren's shot, and Kevin Scriven made a comfortable save.

In the 17th minute, a free-kick to Hendon just outside the penalty area offered a shooting chance for either a right or left-footed taker and Busby, Scott Cousins and Kevin Maclaren all stood over the ball. It was the last-named who struck the ball, but his attempt sailed high and wide of the target.

A minute later, from a corner on the Sutton left, Cousins picked out the unmarked Lee O'Leary. Unfortunately, O'Leary didn't jump quite high enough to be able to direct the ball on target.

And those misses proved even more costly when an error by Kevin Maclaren gave Sutton a third goal in the 24th minute. His back-pass from midway inside his own half, near to the touchline, lacked the pace to reach Reading, who was almost on his goalline.

Steve Watts was quick to chase the back-pass and, with the goalkeeper obviously unable pick up the ball, was strong enough to win a tackle. Reading did manage to force Watts a little wide, but the striker was still able to shoot into the net.

A curling strike from Joseph nearly brought Sutton a fourth goal after 35 minutes. This time, however, the ball just cleared the crossbar with Reading struggling to reach it.

In the 41st minute, a badly-mistimed challenge from Karim El-Salahi on Busby resulted in a Hendon free-kick.

Cousins delivered a deep cross which the Sutton defence failed to deal with and the ball went beyond the far post. Dean won the ball, crossed it back into the middle of the six-yard box, where Casey Maclaren outjumped Jason Goodliffe. His flick-on reached Thomas, who swept the ball into the net.

The referee, however, adjudged Casey Maclaren's leap to be illegal and disallowed the goal. For his dissent, the Hendon player was shown a yellow card. It was the last action of note in an eminently forgettable first half, at least from a Hendon perspective.

James Bent came on for the older Maclaren brother at the start of the second period with the Greens needing to get an early goal if they were to have chance of redeeming the situation. And they got it too.

A run from Dyer was halted illegally by a combination of El-Salahi and Sonny Cobbs. Dyer got to his feet as El-Salahi stood almost over him and the pair swapped (un)pleasantries. El-Salahi followed this with a two-handed shove on Dyer's chest, more a "get out of my face" gesture than anything else.

It was, however, more than enough of an act for the referee to show him a yellow card.

The free-kick was met by Thomas, whose header was well saved by Scriven. Bent, following up, got his foot to the loose ball and diverted it goalwards, but it struck the outside of the post and rolled along the goalline towards the edge of the penalty area.

First to reach the ball was Lee O'Leary, but Goodliffe slid in with a reckless challenge that O'Leary looked to avoid, going to ground in the process. There was no contact between the players, and as Goodliffe touched neither man nor ball there was a reasonable question mark over whether the midfielder went to ground too easily. However, the referee felt that it was worthy of a penalty award.

To their credit, there was little complaint from the Sutton defence and the penalty responsibility fell to Busby. Although Scriven guessed correctly, Busby's strike was firm and true and the ball flew into the net.

For the next 15 minutes, Hendon enjoyed complete control of the game, but couldn't fashion a clear-cut chance. Sutton were left to forage for scraps and play long balls out of defence for Watts and Joseph to chase. These passes were, in the main, dealt with by James Parker and Craig Vargas.

At the other end, Dyer made an excellent run and was in on goal. He tried to beat Scriven at his near post and failed to do so. And further proof of the discomfiture being endured by the home team was a trio of substitutions, mainly defensive in nature, which saw Alan Pouton, Sam Gargan and McKimm introduced at the expense of Craig Dobson, Watts and Danny Phillips.

Guentchev and Burgess replaced Dyer and Kevin Maclaren for the final 15 minutes and the former was soon asking some stern questions of the increasingly worried home back-line.

Thomas again should have scored after 77 minutes. He was unmarked as he met another teasing cross but, once more, failed to hit the target. Scriven then made an excellent save at his near post from Guentchev and then was most relieved to see a shot from the Bulgarian fly inches wide of the far upright.

Hendon manager Gary McCann, a former Sutton favourite, said, "I am very angry because if we had played in the first half the way we did in the second, we would have got something out of the game. In fact, if we had taken one of the chances before the final five minutes, I would still have been confident of getting another goal.

"We were our own worst enemies in the first half. All three goals were avoidable and down to our poor defending. Having said that, the way we applied ourselves after going 3-0 down and in the second half showed what we are capable of doing."