On a very wet afternoon and on a pitch that became increasingly difficult to play on, Hendon lost 2-1 to Kettering Town, who were relegated from the Conference last season.

Manager Dave Anderson made three changes from the previous week at Kingstonian, Dean Lindsay making his debut in goal to replace the unavailable Dave King, Andre Delisser replacing Andy Cook in midfield, and Pat Gavin replacing Eugene Ofori up front.

It was Gavin who had the first sniff of goal when he had a headed attempt skim off the top of the crossbar within the first two minutes. Both teams took a while to get used to the difficult conditions and there was little in the way of goalmouth action.

Hendon opened the scoring in the 25th minute when a free kick from Scott Cousins was flicked on by Gavin to STEVE BUTLER who hooked the ball past visiting keeper Paul Pettinger.

The second half nearly opened in perfect fashion for the Greens when Ricci Crace broke clear of the Kettering defence but Pettinger made things difficult as he rushed out of his goal to make a good save.

Kettering battled hard in the second half to get back into the game and were rewarded in the 65th minute when Jason TUrner headed the ball beyond the despairing grasp of Lindsay.

Kettering had two good free kicks from Ian King well saved by Lindsay, while Crace had a second chance to score but Pettinger pulled off an even better save. Another Hendon chance went begging when no attacker was able to get on the end of a delicious Delisser cross.

The conditions worsened as the game continued, and unfortunately played a part in what turned out to be the winning goal with just seven minutes to go. An attempt by Dave Hunt to play the ball out of midfield got stuck in the mud, and the ball was intercepted by Kettering.

Elliot Paschalis latched onto the ball and beat both the last defender in Mark Burgess and then goalkeeper Lindsay to fire the ball clinically into the net. There was a suggestion by many that Burgess had been pushed by Paschalis in the build up to the goal, but the referee, who it should be said made very few mistakes, ruled that Burgess had merely slipped.

Hendon tried to find an equaliser with the introduction of substitutes Dale Binns and debutant Luke Sheekey, but the Kettering defence, which was well marshalled by veteran Al-James Hannigan, held firm and the Poppies took all three points back to Northamptonshire.

The Greens have a chance for immediate revenge this coming Saturday when they entertain Kettering in the Second Round of the FA Trophy, a competition in which Kettering came runners up in 2000 when they lost to Kingstonian.