Hendon's flickering playoff hopes were finally extinguished by the Metropolitan Police at Imber Court on Tuesday night. The Greens battled manfully, but could not recover from conceding two goals in seven minutes shortly before half-time.

Although the win kept alive the Police's hopes of action next week, with East Thurrock United also winning on Tuesday, a Rocks' victory on Thursday night (when they entertain relegation-haunted Hastings United) will have rendered this, Hendon's penultimate match, meaningless in terms of playoff places. East Thurrock would have a minimum of a three-point advantage and/or a goal difference at least 13 better than the other teams chasing the fifth spot in Ryman League Premier Division.

Darren Currie and Sam Flegg were both available and they came into the side at the expense of Max McCann and Warren Goodhind, whose injury on Saturday will rule him out for the last week of the season. Berkley Laurencin also came in for Sean Thomas, and there was good news in the return - to the bench - of James Fisher, though that was countered by another season-ending injury, to Isaiah Rankin.

Although the Police had the better of the opening 20 minutes in terms of attempts on goal, there was very little to choose between the teams, and Laurencin was barely busier than his opposite number Jamie Butler.

Then, in the 25th minute, Hendon forced a corner. The Greens' set-pieces have been very proficient in the past couple of seasons and they very nearly added another goal with a different move in their repertoire. Currie had the shot, but Butler was well-positioned to make a block and the Blues were able to get the ball clear.

A poor defensive header in the 33rd minute saw the Greens fall behind. The ball was headed away but fell to Howard Newton, who was in acres of space 15 yards outside the penalty area. Compounding Hendon's problem was the fact that no defender came close to slowing Newton, and his 20-yard strike beat Laurencin all ends up.

Seven minutes later, Sam Clayton got free down the right wing. He was able to get his cross in and Charlie Collins timed his run to perfection, getting in front of his marker, and guided his header just inside the near post.

A minute later, Hendon had a great chance to reduce the arrears and keep themselves in the game. Dave Diedhiou was sent in the clear by a clever ball from Dean Cracknell.

Diedhiou ran towards the goal, where Butler was quick to confront him as came off his line. An on-target lob would almost certainly have brought Diedhiou a goal, but he went for power and his strike had plenty of power.

Butler parried the ball with his hands and a Jay Lovett hacked the ball away for a corner. Such was the power of Diedhiou's strike that Butler went down in agony, having wrenched his hand in making the save. Substitute goalkeeper Brannon Daly started to get ready, but after receiving treatment, Butler was able to continue.

The second half was quite cagey. Fisher came on for Carl McCluskey, who had picked up a muscle strain during the first half, so at least the Greens had a pair of recognised centre-backs in tandem.

Certainly, they worked well together and the only opportunities for the Police came from outside the box. Howard Hall and Jack Connors did well to limit the danger from the flanks, and while Currie, Scott Cousins, Cracknell and Kevin Maclaren stopped the Blues midfield quartet, Hendon were equally stifled.

Both teams still tried to play football, but a feature of the match was many players – from both teams - appearing to be in the wrong footwear. A number of openings were denied as they slipped going into good positions, Diedhiou frustrating going down on four or five occasions.

Hendon did get one very good half-chance, if that is not an oxymoron. Butler cleared a ball from 10 yards outside his penalty area, but he made poor contact - he had made a similar error in the first half, but got lucky when the bounce meant the ball couldn't be controlled instant. This time, it needed a first time shot, a party trick which brought success on more than one occasion for Currie's dad Paul.

This time, however, the Hendon player took a touch, steadied himself and then failed to make good contact. The effort lacked both power and direction, saving Butler's blushes.

The usual raft of changes disrupted the latter part of the second half, Jack Bennett and Kambo Smith taking over from Lee O'Leary and Cousins, respectively. And, just when it seemed that Hendon would subside meekly, they got back into the match.

As the game completed the first of three additional minutes, the Greens forced a corner. It was played into the penalty area, half-cleared and then was crossed back into the danger area. Tiredness was probably a factor, but the Police marking was non-existent and it allowed Smith the chance to run in head the ball into the net from six yards, his first goal for the club.

Hendon needed to get the ball back quickly if they were to fashion another opening and maybe snatch what would have been a deserved point. The Police, however, had other ideas, and they kept possession of the ball for long enough to ensure they had no last-minute scares.

"I am disappointed that we lost the game," said manager Gary McCann, "but I am so proud of the effort the boys put in tonight. I could not have asked for more from them.

"In fact the pride in the way the team worked and the shift they put in outweigh the disappointment. Our ball control in the first half was as good as it could have been, especially given the number of players who were in roles they aren't comfortable with.

"The two goals we conceded were disappointing defensively, and I didn't think we deserved to be behind at half-time. We had two great chances to score in the first half but didn't take them.

"We tried so hard to get back into the game, and it showed that we never gave up by scoring yet another goal in the last minute or stoppage time."