Borough at LOOT Stadium on Tuesday night. The defeat keeps the Greens in the bottom 3, a position that would be more parlous if it were not for the fact that only one team is to be relegated at the end of the season and that Croydon remain 15 points behind with just 7 games to play.

Jon-Barrie Bates returned to the team at the expense Paul Yates, who has been struggling with a virus, and Eugene Ofori replaced Ricci Crace up front. In a reshaped formation Micky Woolner moved into midfield alongside Bates, Steve Forbes and Byron Bubb, while Paul Towler returned to right-back and Steve Butler renewed his partnership with Mark Cooper in the middle, with Simon Clarke at left-back.

Chances at both ends were at a premium, but the better ones went Hendon's way: In the 17th minute, Butler ran onto a Towler cross but his header was agilely pushed aside by Harrow's Mali international goalkeeper Keita Karamoko. Three minutes later, a shot from Martin Randall beat Karamoko all ends up, but the ball whistled a foot wide of the post. Eugene Ofori was next to try his luck, but his lob was overhit and dropped behind the goal.

However, from about the half-hour mark, Harrow began to take control, but for all their possession Borough could not put efforts on target. John Lawford fired a shot just wide and David Hook made one save.

The second half was, if anything, poorer than the first, but at least there was goal. It came 10 minutes into the period when Hendon failed to clear a ball and when it rolled across the edge of the "D" of the penalty area, Wayne WALTERS slammed the ball just inside Hook's post.

In the 60th minute, Randall latched onto a moment of hesitation in the Harrow penalty area, but Karamoko clawed the ball away. Ten minutes later, a crazy goalmouth scramble could have resulted in an equaliser, but substitute Leon Woodruffe struck the back of a Harrow defender and the rebound canoned off Karamoko and away to safety.

Harrow were not without chances and in the 74th minute a driven cross flew across the face of the Hendon penalty area with no player able to get a touch.

In the 80th minute, a diagonal ball from Randall almost picked out Woodruffe, who was haring into the Harrow penalty area. Karamoko came out for the ball but neither he nor Woodruffe appeared to get a touch and a goal kick was the result.

In the last couple of minutes, Dale Binns curled in a free-kick which was met by Butler, but Karamoko was quickly off his line and smothered the ball at close range. It was one of those nights.

Manager Dave Anderson was very disappointed with the result. "I can't knock the effort," he said, "but we really struggled with the conditions. On a night like this, the aim had to be to get the ball downfield quickly and our strikers were isolated from the midfield. Our flair players could not get going."