Hendon were a little unfortunate to collect only one point from their Ryman League Premier Division encounter against high-flying Sutton United at Vale Farm, Wembley FC, on Tuesday night. The Greens were the better team and rarely allowed their visitors even a sight at goal.

With only two days' rest between the defeat against AFC Hornchurch and this encounter, Hendon made five changes, all resting players. In came Danny Dyer, Marc Leach, James Bent, Lubomir Guentchev and Brian Haule, while James Burgess, Mark Kirby, Peter Dean, Harry Hunt and Glenn Garner all dropped to the bench.

Sutton started the first half the better, but that can be put down to so many of the Greens making rareish starts. The Us, it must be said, didn't look particularly penetrative. They did force two free-kicks around the penalty area and a corner but none came to anything, Gavin McCallum's free-kick being especially disappointing as it sailed towards Wembley Stadium.

The first opening came in the 18th minute, when Haule made space down the left. Guentchev lost his marker and was in a great position to meet a cross. Sadly, the ball from Haule was not only struck a little too hard, but it was also half a metre behind Guentchev, so his header was uncontrolled and flew off target.

Sam Collins had Hendon's - and the game's - first effort on target and it came in the 39th minute. It was a powerful drive, but Paul Nicholls acrobatically pushed the ball away for a corner.

Two minutes later, Sutton had an effort on target, but James Parker's intervention ensured that Craig Dundas's strike did little more than rolled into the arms of Will Viner.

In first half stoppage time, the Greens were presented with a great opportunity when Jamie Busby's pass invited Bent - who beat the offside trap - to have a clear run at goal. The ball was travelling quite quickly, but Nicholls initially came off his line but when he realised he had no chance of beating Bent to the ball, he slowed down.

Bent went for a lob, but didn't get the ball anywhere near high enough. Nicholls, who was in no-man's land, was extremely grateful that the ball reached him at a comfortable catching height.

Before the second half kicked off, Sutton made a change, replacing caption Chris Collins with Daniel Phillips. In the opening five minutes of the second half, Hendon were pressed back into defence as Sutton, again, made the better start. Once more, however, the pressure didn't last long and Hendon were soon back in the ascendancy.

A rasping drive from Guentchev was probably clearing the crossbar, but Nicholls, nonetheless, got his fingertips to the ball and conceded a corner, which was dealt with, albeit uncomfortably, by the Sutton defence.

Nicholls made an altogether better save from a low drive struck by Busby in the 52nd minute. Hendon were enjoying a lot of freedom down the left wing and Craig Vargas, Collins and Guentchev frequently found themselves in space. In Alan Bray, however, Sutton had the best defender on show and he snuffed out a lot of danger.

In the 70th minute, Tim Bond did well to get in front of Busby as he shot at goal. Bond was able to slow down the ball enough to make Nicholls' save a very comfortable one. A minute later, Hunt replaced Guentchev. Bray was assigned to mark him and limited Hunt's effectiveness.

The one disappointment for the Greens, apart from failing to score a goal, came in the 87th minute, when Kevin Maclaren pulled down Dean Palmer. It was an obvious caution, his second of the game and both were fouls which snuffed out potentially dangerous situations.

The referee duly noted the midfielder's name and showed him a yellow card and signalled for the free-kick to be taken. At this point, the Sutton fans behind the goal start howling at the match official. His assistant, close to the incident, signalled that something was amiss and advised the referee he was having a "Graham Poll moment".

Seconds later, Maclaren was called to the referee. He knew his fate and walked off the pitch as the yellow and red cards were brandished in his direction. If ever there was a red card taken for the team this was it.

Sutton suddenly sniffed the chance of victory and they clearly finished the stronger. But Hendon were not to be denied their share of the spoils.

"I am delighted with the point," said manager Gary McCann, "but I thought we were the better team on the night and it was a little disappointing that we didn't actually get the win.

"I think this shows how far we have come as a unit. Earlier this season, we would have lost a game like this. We made five changes for the game and they all contributed. It gives me a selection headache for Saturday."