Hendon's troubling lack of Ryman League Premier Division form continued on Saturday and Waltham Abbey's first ever home win in the division consigned the Greens to a place in the relegation zone. The Abbots' victory certainly could not have been considered entirely deserved, but all three points for Hendon would have been almost as unjust.

For the first time in a long while, Hendon named an unchanged starting 11 and the same five substitutes following the excellent performance, albeit with a narrow loss, at Tonbridge four days earlier.

In the first five minutes, the Hendon defence was put under serious pressure by a Waltham Abbey attack boosted by a squally shower and strong wind. Xaniel Doku and Ricky Edwards got in a couple of crosses and from one of them, Billy Holland fired just wide.

The first effort on target came from Hendon's James Bent, but it was straight at Joe Taylor, who saved easily. As the wind died down, so Hendon came more into the match, but Dave Ayres forced James Reading into save following a quick Abbots break.

In the 19th minute, Peter Dean managed to break clear of the defence and ran onto a through ball from Kevin Maclaren. Unfortunately for him the ball bounced a little too high for instant control, that by the time he was balanced to shoot, Lee White had got back to make a fine block.

The next chance fell to Scott Cousins, who made a fine break out of midfield. The diagonal ball from Billy Dunn almost picked him out perfectly, but Cousins had to stretch to reach the ball and couldn’t control it.

If the ball had held up just a tiny bit, Cousins would have been able to nick the ball around the onrushing Taylor and have an empty net to aim at. Instead, his stretching left foot knocked the ball past the diagonal of near post and crossbar.

Late in the half a fine deep cross from Lubomir Guentchev picked out the unmarked Cousins beyond the far post. A first time, on target, shot would almost certainly have broken the deadlock, but Cousins' control let him down and by the time he was ready to shoot, George Chanda was able to put him off.

The second half started in dry weather, but the wind had died down to a mere breath, denying the Greens an advantage enjoyed by Waltham Abbey at the kick-off. Nonetheless, the visitors should have taken the lead a couple of minutes into the second half.

After forcing a corner, the ball was not properly cleared and a shot from Cousins came off Pat O'Donnell and went out of play near to the corner flag. His marker, James Elmes appealed for handball against the defender but to his shock and dismay, the referee pointed to the corner flag and his assistant shouted at him, "it came off your chest."

From Cousins’ corner, the ball fell to Bent, whose shot took a deflection and fell at the feet of James Parker. A player with better attacking instincts would have had no problem in flicking the ball past Taylor into the net from four yards, but Parker’s effort was blocked.

After the spell of Hendon pressure, Waltham Abbey gradually began to exert control and it was the Hendon defence which was being posed all the important questions. They had the answers although the quality of defending was less than totally assured.

As the game entered the final quarter, both teams made changes, Hendon introducing Wayne O'Sullivan and Casey Maclaren at the expense of Guentchev and Bent respectively with 13 minutes to go.

Five minutes later, the Greens conceded what proved to be the match-winner. Aaron Gayle, linked up on the left wing and drew a couple of defenders out towards the corner flag.

The two defenders could not stop the ball being crossed and Billy Holland took advantage of the extra space inside the penalty area to rise and plant a free header past Reading. As has been the case so often recently, the marking at a crucial time was non-existent and the lack of midfielders supplementing the back-line was disappointing.

There was still time for Hendon to get something from the game and, with less than two minutes of normal time to go, a powerful drive from O'Sullivan was well saved by Taylor. Two corners in quick succession followed and from the second of these Craig Vargas clipped the top of the crossbar with a header with Taylor struggling to get into position.

Hendon continued to press for an equaliser, but the Waltham Abbey defence was in resilient move and their celebration of the final whistle showed how much the victory meant to them.

Greens' boss Gary McCann said, "Coming into the game, it this was a stonewall three-pointer for us. I felt that this was a performance that warranted more than what we got. And our goal shy play came back to haunt us.

"We have been playing some very attractive football, and I believe in playing football in the right way. We are always trying to score the perfect goal and we dont want to take a risk. But our pleasing on the eye play is not bringing us results so we are going to have to change some things."