Hendon suffered their first defeat of the season, and conceded their first goal away from home, as Kingstonian kept up their amazingly successful record against the Greens. Since gaining promotion a few years back, they have won all but one of seven matches between the teams and have yet to concede a league goal at Kingsmeadow.

There is no question that Ks deserved the victory, but the Greens will be disappointed that the decisive goal came from the penalty spot in the 79th minute.

James Parker and Casey Maclaren were restored to the starting line-up (the former for the first time this season, the latter since picking up an injury at Margate) at the expense of James Archer and Byron Bubb, who named amongst the substitutes.

In the second minute, an attack down the Hendon right, involving Carl McCluskey and Elliot Godfrey resulted in a cross which fell to Greg Ngoyi. His on-target effort beat Rob Tolfrey, but not covering Tom Hutchinson, who chested the ball off the line.

The next 20 or so minutes were even, with both sides looking for an opening. Gradually, however, Kingstonian, still looking for their first home goal and point, began to exert control. After 28 minutes, Michael Peacock appeared to be fouled as he attempted to head a clearance.

The ball fell to Ali Chabaan, who shot at goal was acrobatically cleared by Parker. From the rebound, Mo Harkin had a great chance, but he was denied by an even better intervention from Scott Cousins.

When Hendon attacked next, Ngoyi was denied by Tolfrey, but it was Kingstonian who applied the most pressure. However, suffering from a serious lack of confidence, the home team couldn’t capitalise on the generosity of the match official and clear-cut chances from the resulting scrambles were scarce.

The second half was pretty much one-way traffic, with Kingstonian forcing all the pressure. Laurencin, again given little protection, and not helped, it must be said, by his defending team-mates, made three excellent punches to clear set pieces.

Hutchinson should have Kingstonian the lead when he missed the target with a free header after 57 minutes. But he was outdone, five minutes later, when Simon Huckle, with almost the whole goal to aim at as he rose to meet a right-wing cross, planted his header wide of the near post.

Two minutes later, completely against the run of play, Hendon should have taken the lead. After forcing a corner, the Greens played a clever set move which saw the ball propelled towards the six-yard box. Two yards inside the goal area, Ngoyi was first to react, but he somehow contrived to launch the ball out of the ground.

Buoyed by the incredible let-off, Kingstonian immediately returned to the attack and Laurencin made two outstanding saves in the space of two minutes. In the 65th minute, a free-kick by Harkin was deflected and an arching Laurencin tipped the ball over. And the goalkeeper then denied Sam Clayton, whose drive seemed destined to break Kingstonian's duck.

The next handball proved decisive, and the match-winner. A ball was crossed into the penalty area and Jamie Busby, leaping and turning his body, was struck on the arm. The penalty was the correct decision, and Busby was cautioned.

Bobby Traynor, who had been kept very quiet all afternoon, struck the ball low to his left. Laurencin guessed correctly but he could not get his hands on the worm-crusher as the ball went just inside the post.

Almost immediately, Hendon made a triple change, withdrawing Diedhiou, Ngoyi and Casey Maclaren, with Kevin Maclaren, Byron Bubb and debutant Michael Lewis, respectively, replacing them.

With two minutes of normal time remaining, Hendon had a penalty shout of their own, but the appeal for an apparent handball by Hutchinson was turned down by the referee.

Kingstonian completed their substitutions a minute later (Chabaan had been replaced by Allan Tait after 71 minutes) when Traynor and Romone McCrae - like Chabaan making his debut for Ks - were sacrificed for Bashiru Alimi and Ian Selley. It was a sign of the nerves on the home bench, but their concern was unfounded as Hendon could not find a way through.

"The scoreline wasn’t an unfair one," admitted Hendon manager Gary McCann. "Sometimes you have to give the other team credit and Kingstonian did put us under a lot of pressure, although some of it was our own doing.

"I don't think we ever got going in the second half, but if Greg Ngoyi had scored, I don't think we would have conceded."