Hendon's dreams of promotion to the newly-branded Vanarama National League South were dashed in heartbreaking fashion at Earlsmead when Margate won the Ryman League Premier Division playoff 1–0.

The biggest crowd for a Hendon home match since April 2006, 1228, were on hand - and it might have been more if the game (arranged for less than 72 hours after the semi-final) had not clashed with the Conference Premier playoff final at Wembley. There is no doubt that Margate were deserved winners, and probably merited a victory greater than by that solitary goal, but they were fortunate that circumstances conspired against the Greens.

First of all, two of the key members in Hendon's 25-match unbeaten run, Elliott Brathwaite and Sam Murphy, were unavailable because they had booked holidays months earlier and left London a day before the match, so with both Chris Seeby and James Fisher out of contention, defensive options were severely limited. It meant Dave Diedhiou and Kevin Maclaren returned to the starting line-up and there were also a few positional rearrangements.

Second, and probably even more crucial, was the red card shown to Aaron Morgan after 18 minutes. With 11 men, Hendon might not have been able to break down the Gate defence, but a man short for more than 80 per cent of the contest was just too great a hurdle to overcome.

Just as in the League encounter at Earlmsead in October, Margate started very brightly, but they failed to trouble the Hendon defence in the way they had in that first match. However, especially given what followed in the next ten minute, Charlie Allen was distinctly fortunate to commit three fouls in the opening ten minutes and receive no sanction other than a couple of lectures.

Ryan Moss was probably equally lucky in the 14th minute when he scythed down Oliver Sprague from behind. It was a needless challenge, given that the defender was by the touchline, level with his own penalty area. A yellow card was the minimum punishment and that is what Moss received, and Sprague's angry reaction to the foul resulted in a caution for him too.

Hendon were just starting to probe a Margate defence which has been distinctly creaky over the past couple of months when they were undone. Aaron Morgan had caused the Gate defence one scary moment with a mazy run, when he began another just over the halfway line.

He moved towards the Hendon left flank but Kane Wills did enough in a challenge to cause Morgan to lose possession. He tried to regain the ball but Tambeson Eyong got to it first and the Hendon man caught him as he stretched.

The referee ruled the challenge was worth a red card, and Morgan was forced to leave the field of play. It is hard to know if Eyong’s theatrical collapse influenced the referee, but it was an unedifying act by the player.

However, numerous supporters closest to the incident were canvassed at the time and post-match, and their opinion was unanimous that the sending off was a poor decision. The Football Association concurred with those views when they heard an appeal against the decision few days later - the overturning of the red card being scant consolation for Morgan and Hendon, other than allowing Morgan to start the new season without having to serve a suspension.

Red cards have a tendency to ruin matches with the team a man down severely restricted in their attacking options. This was pretty much the outcome of this decision and Ben McNamara was kept busy, though Margate put few efforts on target.

In front of him, Casey Maclaren, Sprague, Sam Flegg and Charlie Goode needed the assistance of Diedhiou, Kevin Maclaren and Lee O'Leary to keep out wave after wave of blue and white raids. It left just Andre Da Costa and Kezie Ibe to try to fashion openings against a massed wall of four defenders.

The breakthrough came in 39th minute. Freddie Ladapo attacked down the left side, drawing three defenders towards him. He ran down the side of the six-yard box before laying the ball back beyond the penalty spot. Waiting for the chance was Moss, and he wasted little time in firing the ball into the net.

Within two minutes, Hendon caught another bad break, if you’ll excuse the pun. A ball into the Margate penalty area bounced higher than Brett Johnson expected and his attempt to chest the ball clear seemed to strike his arm and upper body. The appeals for a penalty were fairly muted, but Gate goalkeeper Nikki Bull told fans behind the goal he thought it was a penalty.

In the three minutes of first-half stoppage time, Hendon really should have gone further behind. In a crazy scramble inside the Greens' six-yard-box, three or four attempts, from Moss, Ladapo and Wills, were heroically and athletically cleared off the line, or saved equally magnificently by McNamara, before Wills shot wide with most of the target to aim at.

Both teams made changes at half-time, Margate replacing goalscorer Moss with Jamie Taylor and Hendon, changing their formation, returning to a two-man attack with Leon Smith taking over from Da Costa. The upshot was that the Greens had no genuine wide players, but it was a necessary move.

The second half followed the pattern of most of the opening period with Margate having the bulk of the possession and territory. McNamara made a couple of good saves, and one excellent one from Wills, but Goode and Flegg were outstanding.

Charlie Wassmer had his best game of his three against Hendon - he did not play in the Robert Dyas (League) Cup semi-final. He made one important intervention, heading the ball clear when guarding the near post with Bull struggling to reach the ball.

He did, however, have another bad moment trying to deal with a long McNamara clearance. In the match at Hartsdown Park, he headed the ball over Bull into his own net. This time, however, his direction was wide of the post and the goalkeeper was able to back-pedal and catch the ball just short of the goal-line.

Peter Dean and Tony Taggart were sent on for the final quarter of an hour with O'Leary and Sprague sacrificed. Margate, however, remained comfortable in defence, leaving Ibe and Smith to forage for only a few scraps, and their extra man meant their attacks continued to show menace.

With five minutes remaining, Allen was finally shown a yellow card, and the Margate reaction was to remove him almost immediately, defender John Beales coming on in his place. His slow stroll off the pitch was obvious time-wasting - something one would expect from any player or team in the circumstances.

Three minutes of stoppage time were signalled but Hendon had nothing left to give and hordes of Margate fans invaded the pitch when 181 seconds of additional time had been played and the final whistle blew. The over-riding feeling of everyone involved with Hendon was, what might have been ...