Hendon's luck was out as they went down to a 2-0 defeat against Dulwich Hamlet in the Ryman League Premier Division. That is not to say that the defeat was undeserved; the better team won but, with better fortune and less pressing of self-destruct buttons, then the Greens might have gone home from Champion Hill with a point or more.

Tomer Sherman continued in goal, but Hendon did make three changes. Lee O'Leary missed out altogether and Anthony Thomas and Carl McCluskey moved to the subs bench, the trio being replaced by Dean Cracknell, Dave Diedhiou and Michael Bryan, respectively.

With the wind at their backs on a dank afternoon, Hendon narrowly had the better of the opening exchanges. In the 15th minute, Jefferson Louis curled a 20-yard shot inches over the angle of far post and crossbar with Phil Wilson hoping the ball wouldn't drop quickly.

The goalkeeper's wishes were answered, but there was huge frustration for Bryan and Diedhiou, who were both very well placed and unmarked had Louis passed to either of them. It should be said that when you have scored 21 goals before Christmas and your confidence is high, taking on the shot was understandable.

Three minutes later, Chris Seeby and Bryan combined superbly down the right flank with the latter somehow keeping the ball in play. Neither Diedhiou nor Louis expected the ball to be delivered so expertly and it flashed across the face of the goal with no green shirt remotely close enough to getting a decisive touch.

Dulwich, cheered on by a raucous 551 crowd, played in their usual crowd-pleasing way, attacking at pace and passing quickly and accurately, but their final ball in the first half lacked their usual conviction and accuracy. Much of the credit for this must go to the Hendon midfield, who stifled the main dangerman, Erhun Oztumer, well.

When Plan A failed, Dulwich went to Plan B, which involved long-range efforts, but these didn't really trouble Sherman. Sam Flegg and Casey Maclaren clogged up the middle of the defence in front of him and while Seeby was able to get forward, Jack Bennett had more in the way of defensive duties, so wasn't seen much as an attacking threat.

Another superb cross by Bryan after half an hour almost brought Hendon the opening goal, but Louis couldn't quite reach it and the ball was hustled away for a corner. The delivery of the set-piece was perfectly accurate, but Casey Maclaren couldn't turn his brother's cross into the net, heading the ball over the crossbar.

Four minutes before half-time, Dulwich were awarded a free-kick on the edge of the Hendon penalty area. Oztumer took it and bent it towards the base of the near post, but he was denied the opening goal by an acrobatic save from Sherman.

The second half was dominated more by Dulwich, who had the wind - slightly less strong than in the first half - at their backs. They did have a couple of half-chances, helped in no small way by the disappointing distribution of Sherman.

Just before the hour mark, they turned their territorial advantage into something tangible. A cross from the right wing should have been dealt with by Flegg or Sherman, but the two players collided and it passed them without being touched.

Ian Daly arrived towards the far post, but knew little about the ball as it almost struck him on the shin and was turned into the net. At the time, it was probably no more than Hamlet deserved, but it was a sickening blow for the defence which had coped well with the onslaught.

Three minutes later, the Greens almost drew level. Louis curled a right foot shot towards the far post and Wilson made an acrobatic, full-length save to push the ball away.

Taggart chased the ball, but had been in an offside position when Louis had shot. If the ball had gone into the net there is no doubt the goal would have stood, but by chasing the rebound, Taggart changed from being a passive to an active attacker and the flag went up.

Hendon were also unfortunate in that although Adeniyi and Lewis Goncalves dealt with almost everything thrown at them, a large number of defensive touches managed to elude green-shirted players, and almost unerringly bounced to those in pink and blue.

If the first Dulwich goal had been disappointing defensively for Hendon, then the second, with 15 minutes to go, was even more so. It started with the ball being lost as the Greens attacked midway inside the Dulwich half.

Hamlet counter-attacked quickly, but the ball from the right wing was overhit and ended up almost going out for a throw-in on the opposite flank. It was kept in and another cross was delivered. This time, Flegg, in trying to keep the ball out, managed only to deflect it past Sherman for an own goal.

After Thomas, McCluskey, and Wallace had replaced Bryan, Taggart and Kevin Maclaren, Hendon had a much more potent attack, at least down the middle. Both teams had half-chances to score in the final few minutes, but the two defences held out.

Hendon manager Gary McCann was very disappointed at the manner of the defeat, if not the performance. "I thought, at 0-0," he said, "that our passages of play were better than Dulwich.

"But we are continuing to concede stupid, sloppy goals there were two more in this game. I am not happy with the way that we are defending and we really should be doing this better. These careless goals are continuing to come and we have lost games against Whitstable and Dulwich because of them.

"But our all-round display and work-rate warranted something from the game. You could not fault our application, performance and effort in the 90 minutes, but the individual defensive errors have cost us dearly."