Hendon slipped to a third home Ryman League Premier Division defeat in four outings as Billericay Town coasted to a 3-1 victory at Claremont Road on Saturday afternoon. The most disappointing aspect of the performance was the reaction to conceding the decisive third goal just after the break, following which, defeat was meekly accepted.

Gary Meakin made his full Hendon debut following his return from Brook House, via Northwood, after originally signing last season, while the substitute included debutant Brian Fitzgerald, a former QPR junior from Northwood.

The quarter of the game was, at least, significantly better than the whole of the previous week's encounter against Worthing, but the breaks on a dull and dismal afternoon continued to go against the Greens.

In the 22nd minute, Hendon built a promising attack, but when it came to nothing, a Billericay defender raked the ball clear to the halfway line. One pass later, former Green Kieran GALLAGHER found himself in acres of space down the right wing and after cutting into the penalty area, he drove a fierce shot past Dave King.

Hendon's attempt to fight back almost brought immediate reward when Ross Pickett, making the first start of his second spell at the club in place of John Frendo, casually flicked a ball towards goal. Paul Gothard was at full stretch and didn't get within six inches of the ball as it landed on the roof of the net. The referee, Stephen Fay, whose positioning throughout the game was poor, decided the keeper had got a touch and awarded a corner.

Five minutes later, the Greens were unfortunate to concede a second goal. It came from a Danny Julienne pass that would have reached Mark Nicholls, had referee Stephen Fay not intervened. The official's accidental touch diverted the ball to Steve Forbes - along with Pat Sappleton forming a trio of former Claremont Road favourites in the Billericay line-up.

Forbes found Ross Wareham in acres of space, mainly due to the defence having stepped up in the expectation of a Hendon attack and Wareham let fly at goal. King produced a superb save, but could do nothing about the rebound, which was gleefully tapped home by Neil COUSINS.

A number of Hendon players complained to the referee about his intervention but he could do nothing but award the goal. The reaction, however, was positive and, two minutes later, the Greens had pulled a goal back.

Eugene Ofori worked himself an opening and knocked in a short pass towards Pickett. Side on to the goal, PICKETT delicately lifted a first-time lob that completely wrong-footed Gothard and dropped slowly, almost apologetically, over the goalline.

Both teams had half-chances to add to their tallies before half-time, but none were taken. It meant that there was definitely all to play for in the second half and an early Hendon goal would have made for an excellent 45 minutes. Instead, Billericay added to their lead and the game died.

Once again the goal came on the counter-attack and the Hendon defence didn't cover all the runners, with the late-arriving COUSINS again able to profit with a close range shot to make it 3-1.

Hendon's only real chance to claw their way back into the game came in the 69th minute, when Gothard did really well to push aside a shot from Ofori. The first corner was cleared with some difficulty, but the second was a terrible effort, knocked five yards outside the penalty area and the resulting long-range shot went 15 yards wide.

One item of note in the last few minutes was the introduction of 16-year-old Chad Edwards, for David Nolan, in the 86th minute. He became the first Hendon first-team player to play in a match wearing a shirt number (18) higher than his age.

Manager Gary Farrell was unsurprisingly downcast about the result, saying, "We got caught cold on the break for both their first and third goals. But I thought we were very poor in the second half.

"However, I am confident things will improve. We are freshening up our squad at the moment and I am sure it will have the desired effect."