At South Park (Reigate) last Saturday, Hendon led at halt-time, put in a poor second-half performance, and were beaten by a late goal, a similar occurrence to the FA Cup-tie at Steyning seven days earlier. Then the Greens led by one goal at half-time and were beaten by an 88th minute top quality strike. At South Park, Hendon were two goals to the good at the interval, but were beaten by three goals to two, the winner coming three minutes into additional time.

South Park announced several times before the game, and again at half-time, that their right-back, Jerry O’Sullivan, was making his 350th appearance against the Greens. It was also noted in the match programme that Craig McGee, their captain, had played his 150th match for them in the mid-week cup defeat by Epsom and Ewell. These are noteworthy totals, as in general nowadays players seem to spend less times at clubs than in the past, so it is less likely that a player will accrue 150 appearances for a club – roughly, the equivalent of three full seasons – let alone 350. Congratulations to both players.

However, in the first half-hour both players were outshone by club captain Dave Diedhiou, who was making his 505th appearance for Hendon. With a little more luck Hendon could have been three or four goals ahead before the 15 minute mark was reached.

Hendon made several changes to the starting line-up compared to that at Steyning. Tariq Straker was fit to return at left-back in place of Corey Parchment, and Rhys Murrell-Williamson made his first start in his second spell at the club, in place of Keagan Cole, Parchment and Cole both dropping to the subs bench. Additionally, Florian Ada and Sam Shaban swopped the numbers 9 and 14 shirts, Shaban also making his first start for the club. The bench was completed by Richie Mbele and Bradley Smith.

Hendon made a fast start in the match, led by both Diedhiou and Shaban. In the third minute Hendon won a corner on the right, and Rohdell Gordon took it. He aimed for Diedhiou, almost unmarked just beyond the far post, and the latter headed it back into the six-yard box, where SHABAN applied the finishing touch.

Two minutes later Shaban beat the offside trap, and tried to lob the ‘keeper, but failed to get quite enough elevation on it and Danny Bracken, the former Corinthian-Casuals goalkeeper, was able to tip it away for a corner, albeit at full stretch. This time the corner was on the left. Again Gordon took it, but mishit it, and the ball would have gone out of play by the near post had not a Hendon player (thought to be either Shaban or Nikolai Krokhin) flung himself at the ball and managed not only to keep it play but also set up DIEDHIOU to finish. After six minutes’ play Hendon were two up.

Hendon kept pressing, and in the thirteenth minute won their third corner, again on the right. Again Gordon took it and found Diedhiou’s head, but on this occasion the latter went for goal. This time South Park managed to clear the ball off the line, though not without some difficulty.

In the sixteenth minute Diedhiou was again to the fore, this time for the wrong reason, picking up a yellow card for a mistimed tackle during one of the Sparks’ earliest attacks in the match.

Just before the half-hour mark was reached Diedhiou cleared the ball from a South Park attack but collapsed and stayed down. After prolonged treatment he was helped from the field, being replaced by Richie Mbele at right-back with Javon Marquis moving to partner Krokhin in the centre of defence. Niko Muir took over the captain’s armband. It was feared that this was a recurrence of the knee injury that kept Diedhiou out of the second half of last season. However, as he left the ground at the end of the match, he spoke to the club chairman and said that he had felt his groin ‘pop’, but came to realise it appeared to be a minor injury because by then he was walking almost normally, and he wouldn’t be able to do that with a serious groin injury.

As the first half came to a close South Park began to get into the game, and started to look more dangerous, though without causing the visitors’ defence too many problems.

So Hendon led 2-0 at the interval, but the consensus amongst their supporters was that they needed at least one more goal to make the game safer.

The Greens began the second half by not pressing so high up the field, thereby giving South Park more space at the back to be able to set up their attacks. Despite this, in the first 15 minutes of the half, Shaban twice came close to giving Hendon their third goal, firstly with a header that beat the ‘keeper but dropped onto the roof of the net, then with another header which he had to arch backwards to reach. This hit the bar and fell into Bracken’s waiting arms. Adaje also had a shot during this period, but a defender partially blocked it and took the pace out of it, leaving Bracken with an easy save.

The visiting supporters could sense what was going to happen before it did, having already witnessed defensive collapses this season at Hartley Wintney and at Steyning. It seemed to be only a matter of time before the Sparks scored, and once they did, it seemed likely that they would get several more.

In the 59th minute the expected happened. The ball found its way to Tom SMITH, and he gave Josh Strizovic no chance. Twenty minutes later the equaliser arrived with a fierce shot from Alex KEATING. This might have taken a deflection en route, as Strizovic appeared to be moving to cover a shot to his left before being beaten past his right hand. The winning goal came in the 93rd minute from Shamal EDWARDS when the defence failed to clear.

Overall the result was justified, as South Park played more consistently throughout the match. Admittedly they were unable to cope with Gordon’s corners and Diedhiou’s and Shaban’s heading ability during the opening 15 minutes, although they found a way to cope later on.

Hendon played like a reasonably competent step 4 side in the first half but appeared from their second half play to be a below-average step 7 side at best. They are a side who are trying to gel, and they have suffered with injuries to defenders during their four games so far, but until they can put together a cohesive ninety minutes, points are likely to be scarce.