Hendon threw away their chances of reaching the last 16 of the Bryco Cup when they failed to turn a first half of almost complete domination and crashed out 4-3 after extra time at Larges Lane, Bracknell, on Saturday afternoon. The game turned on a lucky bounce just after the hour mark, but it should have been over as a contest long before that.

Mark Burgess and Fabian Forde came into the starting line-up at the expense of the suspended Jon-Barrie Bates and the rested Eugene Ofori, who took a seat on the bench.

The level of Hendon domination can best be described by listing the 12 good opportunities that were spurned.

5 mins: Forde danced past one defender before Jon Underwood unceremoniously upended him. Neither the referee or his assistant saw anything untoward, even though the sound of contact was audible 60 yards away.

6 mins: From the next attack, Martin Randall fired in a low shot that was well saved by Martin Hutt.

14 mins: Randall in a good position fired wastefully over the bar, going for power rather than placement.

15 mins: Antony Howard, playing at right wing-back as Burgess played behind Pat Gavin and Mark Cooper, found himself in acres of space on the right side of the box. Instead of finding one of 3 blue-shirted forwards, he tried an over-ambitious shot towards the near post and the ball clanged off the outside of the metalwork.

17 mins: Gavin rose to meet a header from a Scott Cousins cross, but the ball went wide by a couple of yards.

18 mins: Hutt cleared a backpass downfield and dawdled back towards his goal. Dean Brennan noticed the open target, but was just wide from about 45 yards with Hutt nowhere near regaining his ground.

19 mins: Hutt redeemed himself by making a good save to deny Forde.

25 mins: Having worked himself into a good position on the left side of the Bracknell box, Randall went for glory and shot wildly over the crossbar with Andy Cook, Forde and Dale Binns all waiting for a pass.

27 mins: Stuart Hammonds produced a brilliant goalline clearance to deny Forde after Binns had torn apart the home defence and gone past Hutt.

30 mins: Cook inadvertently blocked Brennan's free-kick from 22 yards.

39 mins: Another Brennan shot took a deflection, this time towards goal and Hutt produced another fine save, twisting in mid-air to grab the ball.

The only goal had come in the 33rd minute, almost out nothing. Underwood seemed to have a downfield ball under control as it rolled harmlessly for a goal kick, but Randall did well to get his foot to the ball and kept it in play.

Unfortunately, Underwood injured himself as Randall turned around him and was helpless as the ball went from Randall to BINNS, who sidefooted the ball into the bottom corner from 16 yards out.

At half-time, Hendon were forced into making a change, with Binns suffering a slight ankle injury. Luke Sheekey was given his chance and it turned out to be a disastrous substitution, with the more experienced Steve Forbes and Ofori also available.

Young Sheekey, who has a very promising future, showed that he still needs much more time because he was at best a peripheral figure. Bracknell, to their credit, used the slope to their advantage and attacked Hendon with gusto. Their one opening in the first half had come after 19 minutes, but a couple of blocks ensured that Dave King had kept a clean sheet at the break.

A second, clear-cut, Hendon penalty was denied 5 minutes into the second half. Once again, the match officials didn't spot Sheekey being flattened by an aerial challenge from Hammonds. Moments later, Hammonds misplaced a clearing header and was relieved to watch it bounce off the inside of the post.

Bracknell's equaliser came out of almost nothing. Adam CRITTENDEN tried his luck from 20 yards. It seemed as if King had the ball under control as it was going to him, but it hit a divot and took off over the goalkeeper and bounced slowly into the net.

From this point on, the absence of Bates in midfield was sorely felt. Sheekey was struggling to get into the game, Forde,in his first Hendon start, was tiring, while Randall flitted out of the game, to be replaced by Forbes with 20 minutes to go. Cook and Brennan were being overrun by a 5-man Bracknell midfield, while Cousins and Howard were being forced to play further and further back.

Almost inevitably the Hendon defence failed to hold out. In the 66th minute, the referee missed a handball as Bracknell contested a ball just outside the Hendon box and, when the ball was laid square, Neil Selby had a clear chance. He could not take it because Burgess brought him down.

The assistant referee signalled for a penalty and the man in the middle had no hesitation in pointing to the spot. dditionally the referee showed Burgess the almost inevitable red card. Up stepped Gavin SMITH and he struck the spot-kick under King's dive.

Hendon's equaliser came out of nothing, almost literally. With 15 minutes to go, the Greens were awarded a free-kick 10 yards inside the Bracknell half, near the touchline. Brennan curled the ball into the penalty area, but overhit it.

HUTT came off his line and was unchallenged as he tried to gather the ball. Somehow, the goalkeeper didn't get his hands high enough and managed to let the ball bounce off them. The ball hit the post and rolled along the line as the goalkeeper tried to save his embarrassment. Although he succeeded, the assistant referee disagreed and signalled a goal.

Neither team could find a winner in the final quarter of an hour, so the game went to extra time. It took barely 90 seconds for Bracknell to regain the initiative, CRITTENDEN again taking advantage of an attack down the left wing ripping open a huge hole in the Hendon defence to score from 15 yards.

CRITTENDEN's hat-trick strike was the best of the lot. Four minutes into the second period of extra-time, he was given acres of space, but dipping 25-yard shot flew over King and under the crossbar.

Almost immediately, OFORI, who had replaced Sheekey. ran onto a flicked header from Gavin and fired a confident low shot past Hutt. In the last couple of minutes, a cross from Gavin was met by Forde, but the ball missed the target.

"I am sorely disappointed," admitted manager Dave Anderson. "You can't concede 4 goals in a game and expect to win it. We had all those chances in the first half but we didn't take them and it cost us dearly. I had a feeling it wasn't going to be our day when we didn't get those penalties in the first minutes of either half."