Hendon suffered an embarrassing exit from the Middlesex Senior Cup as North Greenford United - spearheaded by former Greens Mark Nicholls and Aaron Morgan, the latter of whom grabbed a double - won 3-2 at Berkeley Fields on Tuesday evening.

It was a hugely disappointing performance by the Greens, who can have few complaints about losing to a team which recorded its only League (the Evo-Stik Southern League Central Division) win in August. Admittedly, Hendon were not at full strength, but the players who were selected should have been good enough to overcome opponents desperately lacking in confidence.

The Greens welcomed back Lee O'Leary for his first Hendon match in 22 months, and gave a first start to Julian Owusu. There was also a change in formation as none of Dave Diedhiou, Belal Aite-Ouakrim or Greg Ngoyi were available for the start Jack Mazzone came in to partner Owusu up front, with Michael Murray (a Combined Counties championship winner with North Greenford in 2010) just behind the pair.

North Greenford contained no less than five players who were with Hendon (though two didn't play a competitive fixture for the Greens), Sean Hillier, Liam Hind - who was captain - Wayne Jackson, Nicholls and Morgan, the latter just returning to senior football after his injury ruined 2011-12 campaign.

Hendon made a very poor start and fell behind in the 11th minute when some lacklustre defending saw the ball given away and David Taylor took full toll, shooting past Berkley Laurencin.

Ten minutes later, Hendon were level. Howard Hall did all of the hard work with a fine raid down the right wing. He crossed low into the penalty area where Owusu lost his marker and shot just inside the near post, beating another North Greenford newcomer - former Wembley goalkeeper Lee Pearce.

Hendon raids were frequently thwarted by offside decisions, some of which the players felt were harsh in the extreme, but their overall approach play really lacked sparkle. That said, Kevin Maclaren came very close to giving Hendon the lead in the 39th minute, when he drilled a shot which was beating Pearce and arrowing into the bottom corner.

Unfortunately for him, and Hendon, John Sonuga threw himself in front of the ball and blocked it away for a corner. The corner rather summed up the Hendon half. Murray and Scott Cousins played the ball to each other, only for Cousins, who was behind Murray when the ball was played back to him, to be flagged for offside.

In the second half, as the temperature dipped below zero, Hendon enjoyed plenty of possession, but created around the same number of chances as the Celsius reading. And the defensive performance ensured that this would prove to be the Greens' downfall.

In the 64th minute, Morgan was allowed a clear run and sight of goal. He shot beat Laurencin all ends up and Hendon were, once again behind. This was the signal for a three substitutions, with Jerome Federico and Casey Maclaren taking over from Mazzone and Kevin Maclaren, followed a few minutes later by, Isaiah Rankin replacing Cousins.

The tie was effectively settled in the 84th minute when more kamikaze defending allowed Morgan the opportunity to complete a double, which he duly did.

Hendon finally managed to apply serious pressure on the North Greenford defence and it was found wanting. O'Leary's effort was fumbled by Pearce and Casey Maclaren swept home the loose ball.

There was about 90 seconds of normal time, plus four of stoppage time, to play, but North Greenford - who have conceded numerous late goals this season - were able to hold on to book a trip to Ashford Town (Middlesex) in the next round.

"I am very unhappy with the performance," said manager Gary McCann. "We did have a few players missing, and changed the formation with Saturday in mind, but the personnel and systems should not have as poor as we were. The defence did not have a night to remember.

There was one piece of good news to come out the game and that was Lee O'Leary playing the full 90 minutes and coming through it without a reaction."