Hendon were left rueing a number of missed chances in front of goal after they were held to a 1-1 draw by Northwood at Claremont Road on Tuesday evening. The Greens had 7 or 8 decent second half chances and contrived to miss them all.

There were just two changes to the starting line up following the win at Bedford on Saturday. Dave King returned in goal in place of Gary McCann while Richard Evans replacing Scott Cousins on the left hand side of midfield. On the bench Evans was replaced by Steve Forbes.

The game also saw a meeting of the Bates brothers. Hendon skipper Jon-Barrie coming face to face with his brother Ian. Strangely both brothers wore the number 7 shirt. Also in the Northwood line up was former Hendon defender Rene Street.

The first chance of the game fell to Northwood in the 2nd minute when Kieran Knight was unable to connect properly with a cross from Dave Sargent. Three minutes later Ricci Crace had a long range shot, but it was comfortably saved by Rob Bullivant.

In the 14th minute Hendon were awarded a penalty when referee Martin Darlow, who had an excellent game along with his assistants Graeme Thorley and Gavin Hock, ruled that Steve Butler's shirt had been pulled by a Northwood defender. MARTIN RANDALL stepped up to take the spot kick and sent the ball low to Bullivant's left hand side.

However, eight minutes later Hendon returned the favour when Iain Duncan brought down Chris Moore in the 18 yard box and it was the turn of DAVE SARGENT to convert the penalty, which he did in some style managing to wedge the ball into the stantion!

Hendon had a chance to regain the lead just a minute later when a long ball from Butler was chased down the left wing by Crace, who pulled the ball back across the area but it went just behind the run of Randall. A moment later Mark Burgess hit a 30 yard volley wide of the goal.

The Greens continued to create chances throughout the rest of the first half, Richard Evans fired a corner that wasn't cleared straight at Bullivant moments after the keeper had made an excellent save from a deflected Randall shot.

Ten minutes before the break, Northwood had their best chance of the half when the excellent Chris Moore showed good skill and beat Butler & Iain Duncan to deliver a superb cross which eluded Steve Hale and Knight.

Shortly afterwards a Hendon freekick taken by Jon-Barrie Bates was passed to Randall who shot low towards the goal. The ball took a wicked deflection and Bullivant made another excellent save to turn the ball away for a corner.

The second half saw Hendon have the vast majority of the possession, creating a number of chances which the Greens were unable to convert.

Just four minutes into the second period came the best chance when a cross from Martin Randall was delivered to Andre Delisser, who when unmarked and with just the keeper to beat managed to fire the ball over the bar. It must be said that this was the only blemish in an otherwise excellent performance from Delisser.

A minute later a Mark Burgess corner was flicked on by Randall causing some confusion in the Northwood area before the ball was cleared. Moments later Bullivant pulled off another good save, this time from Ricci Crace after good work from Delisser and Randall. Another chance came within a minute when Jon-Barrie Bates was only able to head a cross from Iain Duncan wide of the goal.

Further chances fell to Delisser and Bates, but were either saved by Bullivant or in a couple of cases flew just inches over the bar. With fifteen minutes to go Delisser was replaced by Eugene Ofori.

With ten minutes to go a corner was half cleared by the Northwood defence to Bates who shot just over the bar, missing by inches once again. Northwood then launched a rare attack, in which Moore was again involved as he delivered a dangerous low cross which Dave King did well to smother. Hendon had a couple more chances in injury time but were unable to find the target.

Mention must be made again of the back four of Mark Burgess, Iain Duncan, Mark Cooper and Steve Butler, who with little exception snuffed out any attacks that Northwood launched throughout the 90 minutes.

Speaking after the game manager Dave Anderson commented: "That was probably the best home performance of the season although we were lacking quality in one or two areas, highlighted by Andre's miss. Apart from that the effort and workrate by the players could not be faulted.

"Some supporters have asked why Eugene Ofori hasn't started the last couple of games. This is because he has been carrying a slight groin strain, and with the suspension looming for Martin Randall, we have wanted to ensure that Eugene is fit for the FA Cup game on Saturday afternoon."