Hendon dominated almost all of the second half of their Ryman League Premier Divisiion match against 10-man Hayes at Church Road on Saturday afternoon, but they could not find a goal and thus had to settle for goalless draw. The result dropped the Dons down to 4th in the Premier Division, but they remain 3 points new leaders Aldershot.

The 10-day lay-off since their last match refreshed Hendon's players, but only Micky Woolner of the long-term absentees recovered from injuries to start the game. Jamie Burgess, Steve Butler and Martin Randall were all absentees, serving one-game suspensions, while neither Dale Binns, Brian Haule nor Kieran Gallagher were fit enough to make even the substitutes bench, although on-loan Rob Hollingdale did.

A debut was given to another loanee, Adrian Clarke from Stevenage Borough and he played on the left side of midfield with Iain Duncan dropping back to left-back, opposite Woolner. Paul Towler partnered Mark Cooper at heart of defence. Up front, Eugene Ofori partnered Ricci Crace.

In the opening 2 minutes, Steve Forbes tested the agility of Hayes goalkeeper Bertrand Bossu and he was equal to the low shot. When it came to dealing with crosses, however, the tall, thin Frenchman displayed a distaste for catching the ball. Not that he needed to worry though, as Jamies Jarvis and Shipperly had many inches of height over the two Hendon front-runers.

The Hayes defence was consistently strong and brave, especially when it came to throwing bodies in front of shots. One attack saw efforts from both Ofori and Forbes strike striped shirts with the efforts almost certainly on target and likely to beat Bossu.

After Hendon had enjoyed the better of the opening 10 minutes, Hayes then dominated the following 15. David Hook made a good save from an effort by Dean Clark and Justin Cochrane proved a handful with his darting runs.

The slippery conditions meant that challenges were occasionally mistimed and, in the main, referee Mr S Humphries (Wiltshire) gave players leeway. Jon-Barrie Bates reacted to a high kick that resulted in the Hendon skipper receiving treatment, but the referee satisfied himself with a stern lecture to him and his assailant.

The game's turning point - if there can be one when no goals are scored - arrived in the 41st minute. Woolner was just about favourite to reach a loose ball, but it held up only slightly and skipped a little off true path. Shipperly was committed to going in for the ball too, but he could not get his body position right and it made his challenge very awkward and he caught Woolner, who went down in agony.

It was clearly a foul, but the assistant referee saw malice in the incident and gave Mr Humphries his version of the incident. It left the referee with no alternative but to produce a red card, much to the anger of Shipperly's teammates who berated the assistant before play could resume. Woolner was able to continue after receiving treatment.

The second half was pretty much one-way traffic. Hayes gave up most of their attacking ideas and conceded much of the initiative in midfield, but the Missioners defence certainly didn't take it lying down. They held out magnificently and worked hard for each other.

That said, Hendon will be disappointed that the final ball into the penalty area, whether from Paul Yates or Woolner on the right, or Duncan or Clarke from the left, was almost inevitably met by a striped shirt, neither Ofori or Crace being likely to win any aerial challenges.

Hendon's best chance fell to Crace in the 82nd minute. He finally worked himself an opening and sprinted clear of the defence with only Bossu to beat. His low shot was on target, but was brilliantly blocked by Bossu's outstretched left leg.

Two minutes later, Hayes almost snatched victory. A misplaced back-pass from Towler was pounced on by Hayes substitute Danny Julienne, but he rolled his shot wide of the target.

"Maybe we were guilty of playing too much football this afternoon," admitted manager Dave Anderson. "Hayes are much better than when we met them in August."