Hendon endured a night of extreme frustration as they slumped to a -–0 defeat against bogey team Enfield Town. After enjoying much success in cup competitions against the Towners in years gone by, ever since the fans' club joined the Ryman League Premier Division, Hendon's record stands at four defeats out of four, eight goals for and 15 against.

James Fisher was absent and it meant a recall to the starting 11 for Ryan Wharton, who partnered Casey Maclaren. With Sam Flegg and Elliott Brathwaite still a little short of match fitness, Junior Lewis stepped up to the bench.

Having played so little in recent weeks, and not at all at Earlsmead since late December, it is not surprising that both teams were a little tentative at the beginning. That said, a deep cross in the fourth minute resulted in Noel Imber tipping the ball away, but no Hendon player was close enough to take advantage of the half-chance.

Enfield Town had their first real opening in the 20th minute. With the Hendon defence at sixes and sevens, it took an excellent save from Ross Fitzsimons to keep the scores level.

To a large extent, the Towners succeeded in stopping Jack Bennett and Chris Seeby from linking up with Tony Taggart and Michael Bryan down the flanks.

But they weren't always successful and, in the 21st minute, former Enfield man Adam Wallace was presented with a chance. Imber got a touch to his swerving shot, which was going wide and the goalkeeper was rewarded with a goal-kick.

Three minutes later, Seeby crossed to beyond the far post, where Anthony Thomas did well to win the header and send the ball back across the face of the goal. Wallace slid in, but somehow failed to get what would have been a goal-scoring touch on the ball, though he did collide with Imber by the far post.

Thomas then bent a shot that again drew a save from Imber, but didn't earn his team a corner, much to the frustration of players and fans alike. A couple of tough challenges on Hendon players also drew ire, but it was an indication of Enfield's desperation to get something from the game.

It still seemed only a matter of time before Hendon finally made the breakthrough. Instead, in the 40th minute, the Greens fell behind. A corner was sent to the far post where the diminutive Tyler Campbell won a header. The ball bounced around the penalty area until Liam Hope turned it into the Hendon net.

Despite the disappointment of conceding just before half-time, Hendon had another chance to score just before half-time, but Lee O'Leary couldn't get his head on a cross and took an elbow in the back for good measure.

At the start of the second half, Hendon looked bright. They came desperately close to snatching an equaliser when a Bennett spotted Imber a little off his line. He delivered a teasing lob-come-cross over the goalkeeper, who knew his jump was in vain.

The ball dipped just too late, hitting the crossbar. Thomas was following in, but he had the misfortune to be struck by the ball and rather than being able to divert it into the vacant part of the goal at the far post, the ball bobbled off him and out for a goal kick.

Two minutes later, Imber made a good save at the expense of a corner. The set-piece proved calamitous for the Greens, because they played it short, then made a hash of the delivery and conceded a second goal.

Thomas tried to find Taggart, who ran inside and thus ignored the ball. Bennett tried to react to the danger but was unable to stop it being stolen by Enfield, who suddenly had a 2-on-1 attack. Two passes later, Campbell made it 2-0.

Midway through the half, Hendon made a treble substitution, sending on Leon Smith, Dave Diedhiou and Michael Murray for Thomas, Bryan and Taggart, respectively. Although there was now less width to the Hendon attack, there were still more than enough weapons to fashion a goal.

Kevin Maclaren and O'Leary were more than holding their own in the midfield, but it was in the attacking third where Hendon were really found wanting. Too many times, the ball was played into parts of the penalty area where green shirts were absent.

The Towners defence was frequently at full stretch to deal with Hendon attacks. However, their luck remained and numerous mishit clearances either struck a Greens player or rolled to an Enfield team-mate who was able complete the job of ferrying the ball away from danger.

Hendon were over-committed to attack and paid the penalty with three minutes of normal time remaining. Once more the defence really should have done better to deal with the danger, but they didn't and Jamie Richards applied the coup de grace to ensure the points for Enfield.

There was still time for Murray to have an effort cleared off the line by Nathan Livings and for Imber to made a superb save from a long-range shot, but Hendon players had rather accepted that this was not their night.