Hendon took a three-goal lead inside 18 minutes of their preseason friendly against Waltham Forest at the Heathrow Club, Printing House Lane, Hayes, but were unable to get a victory.

It was a fractious, often feisty encounter not helped by a referee, Chris Evans, who issued four yellow cards as well as bewildering all and sundry in attendance with a succession of inexplicable and inconsistent decisions.

Motorway mayhem meant that Dave King was unable to arrive for the game, so Luke Thornton, himself another late-comer, took over between the posts after Waltham Forest had agreed to let their second-choice goalkeeper Emeka Aneke play for the Greens.

But the early action was all at the other end and newcomer Danny BUTLER opened the scoring after just six minutes, arriving at the far post to net from close range.

Two minutes later, good work from Mark Nicholls, harrying the Waltham Forest defence into an error, allowed the former Chelsea striker to cross to the far post where Usif BANGURA arrived late and unchallenged to sidefoot the ball past the hopelessly exposed Gavin King.

Waltham Forest's central defensive pairing of Simon Tickner and Andy Purcell endured a torrid time as Bangura, Nicholls and John Frendo ran at them with dangerous purpose. And in the 18th minute, Bangura reached a ball Purcell was trying shepherd out for a goal kick and FRENDO capitalised, scoring at the second attempt after his first shot had been blocked.

However, it took just two minutes for frailty in the Hendon defence to be revealed as Dewayne CLARKE fired in a ten-yard shot at Thornton's near post, with the goalkeeper struggling to see the ball between two defenders' legs.

In the 24th minute, a clumsy challenge brought Marvin Walker crashing to earth but, as Hendon defenders and most Waltham Forest attackers awaited the obvious penalty decision, Hughes GUEI shot home from an acute angle. Mr Evans never signalled he was playing advantage, so the sloppy defensive work caused more displeasure to the Hendon bench.

The two-goal lead could have been restored on a couple of occasions, but Frendo was denied by King twice, first the goalkeeper catching lob that was not quite high enough, then plunging low to his right to push aside a powerful drive.

At half-time, Hendon made three changes and Waltham Forest six. It was one of the newcomers, former Greens striker Joe NARTEY, who equalised heading home a corner at the near post three minutes into the second period.

That was the end of the scoring and the game deteriorated as the cooling breeze grew stronger and the rock-hard pitch made ball control difficult.

Another contributory factor were the multiple and regular changes to the personnel with Hendon making three more substitutions and Waltham Forest five.