Hendon were well beaten by Wealdstone to start their preseason friendlies at Silver Jubilee Park on Tuesday night.

The newly-laid upgraded pitch looked a picture, and it suited the visitors, who play in the National League Premier Division two levels above the Greens.

This game probably came a bit too early for Hendon given that they had only started their preseason training a few days earlier and the squad is much changed from last season.

But the main reason for the raft of preseason friendlies is so that the management team can look at players in game-time action rather than training, so numerous trialists add to those already signed on for the new season.

Wealdstone took full account of this, naming eight trialists in their starting 11. Those eight were supplemented by Alex Dyer, Tecane Shrowder and Ashley Charles.

The Stones started very well and they were a little unfortunate that two very valid penalty claims were waved aside in the opening ten minutes, in between which Dyer fired a shot just wide of the target.

Marcin Brzozowski made an excellent low save to deny Trialist B, who had been given far too much space to roam forward down the right wing and then cut into the penalty area.

The deadlock was broken in the 31st minute when Trialist H did well down the left wing and his cross was nodded into the net by an unmarked Trialist E.

Five minutes later, crafty work from Rohdell Gordon gave Bobson Bawling a chance, but he lifted his shot over the crossbar.

From the goal-kick, Wealdstone counter-attacked at pace and Trialist G nearly lifted the goal out of the ground with a pile-driver that crashed off the underside of the crossbar and bounced back, landing on the edge of the penalty area.

And, in the last action of the half, Azeez Alabi made a brave block of a shot from Trialist G, keeping the score at 1–0.

The raft of changes during the interval effectively made the second half a new game, and this time Wealdstone wasted no time in getting on the scoresheet.

Trialist I made a quick impression and his low cross was met at the far post by Tarryn Allarakhia, who had to stretch a little to turn the ball over the line.

Allarakhia had much more work to do when he made it 3–0 after 57 minutes. He beat two defenders, regained his balance and stroked the ball past the exposed Brzozowski.

The big goalkeeper did well to save a powerful shot from Trialist I after 61 minutes before Hendon came close to reducing the deficit.

In the 69th minute, a blue-shirted defender made a brave block to keep out a shot from Rohdell Gordon which would have beaten Sam Howes.

Howes then produced a magnificent save to push aside a powerful drive from Isaac Galliford and, from the resulting corner, Mo Nugent saw his header hit the crossbar and a defender blocked the rebound on the line.

In the last minute, Wealdstone added a fourth goal when Trialist I completed his excellent 45 minutes with a clever shot.