Hendon suffered a comprehensive 3-0 home defeat at the hands of in-form and high0flying Canvey Island on Tuesday night. At their best, Hendon would have struggled to deal with Gulls, whose running and harrying left the Greens on the back foot from the first minute to the last.

As the final whisle went, the Canvey manager turned to the players and coaches in the dugout and said, "that was the best we have played all season." Nevertheless, the result, whilst neither in dispute nor undeserved, was disappointing only because all three goals Hendon conceded were the result of bad mistakes and the Gulls really didn't have to work hard for any of them.

There were a couple of changes from the team which had beaten Folkestone two days earlier, Eddie Munnelly, Belal Aite-Ouakrim and Kevin Maclaren being rested and James Burgess, Aaron Morgan and Craig Vargas (after two and a half months out injured) taking their places.

From the opening kick-off, Hendon lost possession, a misplaced backwards pass towards Dave Diedhiou putting the wing-back under pressure. Although he was able to get out of trouble, it was not long before Canvey were making James Reading work.

The goalkeeper, however, was able to deal with the dangerous cross, but Hendon's first escape came after a dozen minutes, when Danny Heale fired over from a good position.

Morgan and Greg Ngoyi were hopelessly isolated up front as midfielders Burgess, Danny Dyer and Jamie Busby were forced to help out what was effectively the back five.

Two careless challenges by Busby on the edge of the Hendon penalty area led to free kicks, the first of which went wide, the second requiring another save from Reading.

Hendon couldn't get out of their own half during the opening 20 minutes, and even though Canvey were without their two veteran central defenders, Steve Ward and Chris Moore, their replacements John Easterford and Michael Ailele were more than comfortable protecting James Russell.

Canvey had two loud shouts for penalties in the first half - firstly for handball, secondly for a foul - both of which were rejected by the referee.

A consistent pattern for Hendon matches this season has been to have a poor first half and a much better second. So when the game moved towards the interval, Greens fans were looking forward to the possibility of a big turnaround. Instead, what they got a calamitous defensive gaffe which saw them traipse into the dressing rooms trailing by a goal.

It was a careless back-header, far too weak to reach Reading, which was collected by Jason Hallett, who took the ball forward and drilled it past the goalkeeper.

Hendon needed a bright start to the second half to get back into the game, but they didn't get it. Canvey forced the Greens back towards their goal and started defending around the halfway line.

In the 52nd minute they forced a corner on the left side and, when it was delivered, Hallett appeared to be unchallenged as he headed past Reading to make it 2-0.

Seven minutes later, Hallett had his hat-trick. The only assist could be from the Hendon player, attempting to launch the ball downfield, who sliced it so badly that it looped high in the air, back towards his own goal. Hallett was, once more, unchallenged as he unfussily put the ball in the Hendon net.

Hendon were finally galvanised into some attacking. A 25-yard drive from Busby flew just wide of the target, another effort narrowly cleared the crossbar. On both occasions, Russell may well have been beaten, but, with 25 minutes to go, he had still not been forced into anything more difficult than catching a few crosses.

His first real work came from a Scott Cousins corner which the goalkeeper just about was able to punch away from danger under severe pressure from Morgan, Ngoyi and James Parker. However, the keeper need not have worried because the referee awarded him a free kick.

A double change, just before the midway point of the second half, saw Bradley Ambrose and Brian Haule replace Diedhiou and Vargas as Hendon changed their shape. It didn't really have much of an effect, because it was still Canvey who set the tempo.

Rakatahr Hudson made his Hendon return a few minutes later, replacing Ngoyi, and he saw his first meaningful intervention blocked by a Canvey defender.

The nearest Hendon came to a goal was a scramble just inside the Gulls penalty area. Busby's first shot was on target and going towards the bottom corner, but Easterford blocked it back to the edge of the penalty area.

The ball was fed back to Busby, whose next effort struck Burgess, but was probably going wide of the target and the midfielder had no chance to get out of the way.

Hendon manager Gary McCann admitted, "It's not often that I have said this, but we were completely outplayed, out-thought and outmanoeuvred tonight.

"They were better than us in every facet of the game. We were a little bit off our game tonight, but even at our best we would have struggled. That was the best performance against us this season."