Hendon made it eight points dropped out of nine as they once again found themselves in a winning position, but couldn't seal the deal. In the game at Canvey Island, a missed penalty meant only one point, but stoppage time goals last week against Hampton & Richmond Borough and on Monday night hosting landlords Harrow Borough resulted in defeat.

The same starting eleven was on duty, but the hard work put in by physio Mark Findley and Casey Maclaren himself meant he was able to take a place on the bench, where goalkeeper Danny McNicholas joined him - Joe McDonnell having passed a pre-match fitness test.

The Greens had the wind in their favour in the first half, but didn't really use it well. Indeed, the closest either team came to scoring was at the clubhouse end, where Harrow created a large number of openings. Jake Gilbert fired narrowly wide, then McDonnell made excellent saves to keep out efforts from Adam Louth and Ryan Debattista.

Hendon's only effort of note came from an excellent flowing move, which was finished by an acrobatic volley by Leon Smith. Had it gone in, it would have been one of the goals of the season, but the striker didn't catch the ball cleanly and James Shea made a routine save.

Shortly after this, former Hendon centre-back Michael Peacock suffered a serious lower leg injury when he controlled a ball on his chest, but stumbled forward over his ankle, which didn't turn and he heard a loud 'pop' as he crashed face-first into the turf. He was eventually stretchered off before having to wait around 90 minutes for an ambulance to turn up.

Harrow continued to have the better chances and both Louth and Debattista again went close. However, the closest Borough came to a goal was when Danny Leech saw his header from a Victor Osobu corner crash off the crossbar.

Whatever was said in the Hendon dressing room at half-time, it seemed to wake the Greens from their collective torpor. Elliott Brathwaite and Tony Taggart put efforts narrowly wide, before a clever free-kick from Michael Bryan gave Smith another chance, but Shea was quickly off his line and blocked the shot at almost point-blank range.

In the 59th minute, it was no surprise that Hendon took the lead. A ball over the top by Lee O'Leary found Smith on the shoulder of the last defender. He muscled his way past him, rolled ball around Shea, then strolled towards the goal-line, with only Anthony Thomas for company.

Almost everyone, from both teams, stopped expecting to see the assistant referee's flag raised or hear the referee's whistle blown, but there was nothing so Smith, with a huge grin on his face, slapped the ball into the net from the unmissable range of six inches.

Shea then denied both Dave Diedhiou and Thomas as Hendon seemed on the verge of running away with the game. However, there was a warning shot struck across the green-and-white bows when Marc Charles-Smith shot just over the Hendon crossbar.

The warning wasn’t heeded and, in the 74th minute Osobu tried his luck, cutting in from the right side. This effort was on target and it flew past McDonnell into the roof of the net.

Suddenly Hendon appeared to run out of steam and it was Harrow who again set the pace. Debattista hit the outside of a post and McDonnell was quickly off his line to smother a chance that fell to Gilbert.

However, it was definitely not one way traffic, and both Hendon full-backs, Chris Seeby and Jack Bennett, began to enjoy more space foraging forward. They delivered some teasing crosses when no team-mate could capitalise upon.

The Greens sent on Maclaren - albeit in an unfamiliar left-midfield role - and Michael Murray, at the expense of Taggart and Thomas. A few minutes later, Jose Figura took over from Bryan as Hendon went in search of a winning goal.

Figura had to outstanding chances. First he threw himself into a header and rather mistimed it, though it still forced an excellent save out of Shea. He then drilled a shot towards the near post, which the goalkeeper kept out with his boot.

The best chance, however, fell to Murray, set up by Seeby. He needed only to find the right side of the goal as he met the ball 16 yards out, Shea having been dragged across to the opposite side of the goal. Instead, Murray decided to curl the ball, started it too far off target and the ball missed the post by a foot.

His next contribution, however, was catastrophic for Hendon. In the fourth minute of stoppage time, in a good attacking position, he tried to turn, and was forced back towards his own. He played a one-two, still in retreat, and played a pass towards Sam Flegg that was way too soft.

Steve Butterworth nipped in and was left with a clear run at goal. McDonnell came off line quickly, but the Harrow substitute beat him, knocked in the match-winner and ran away to await his celebrating team-mates.