Hendon and Leyton, fourth and third, respectively in the Premier Division, produced a poor advertisement for the quality of the League at Claremont Road. The game ended goalless and, sad to say, almost chanceless too.

The Greens made four changes to the team that struggled to overcome Holmer Green in the FA Cup. They welcomed back John Frendo and Mark Nicholls from suspension and they came into the side for the injured Eugene Ofori and Dave Hunt, who dropped to the bench. A first-team debut was also given to Danny Julienne, who replaced Scott Williams, while Wayne Carter came in for the suspended James Burgess.

On a drab afternoon the two teams produced a match that surpassed the weather. Between them they managed a total of eight shots at goal and managed to put half of them off-target, mostly by a considerable margin.

Leyton did have a opportunity in the opening couple of minutes, but Manny Williams rushed his shot and it flew wide.

Hendon opened quite brightly and, for about 20 minutes, played some neat incisive football. Everything, however, broke down at the edge of the penalty area as the Leyton defence, well marshalled by Scott Honeyball stiffened its resolve.

The Greens' best chance of the game fell to Martin Vrhovski in the 28th minute. A diagonal pass from debutant Danny Julienne forced Hasell to come off his line.John Frendo ran in to meet the ball, but the goalkeeper got there first, but only with a fist to push the ball away.

It bounced outside the penalty area to Vrhovski, who was in space. He had time to settle himself before striking the ball and an on-target shot would probably have broken the deadlock. Sadly, Vrhovski didn't get balanced and opted for a first-time blast that flew high and wide.

In the 43rd minute, Richard McDonagh found himself in a little space 25 yards out. He shot at goal, but the effort lacked the power to beat Hasell. In fact, Nicholls and Frendo, hunting for rebounds, were only a couple of yards away from reaching the ball before the goalkeeper could handle it.

Leyton probably shaded the second half, but looked almost as punchless as Hendon. However, they were a trifle fortunate not to concede a penalty in the opening minutes of the period.

Danny Butler and Honeyball leapt beyond the far post and although the Hendon defender's header was not on target, the ball was helped wide by the fist of the defender, whose arm was outstretched in the act of leaping. Referee Paul Martin, shielded from the challenge looked to his assistant for help, but got nothing and awarded a goal kick to the visitors.

Honeyball had Leyton's first shot on target, in the 61st minute, but his low free-kick was easily gathered by King. The goalkeeper then needed only to position himself in the middle of the goal to catch a shot from Mark Sophocleous.

Although it could never be described as a grandstand finish, in the last minutes, both teams had a final chance to take all three points. In the 89th minute, King saved low at his near post to deny Trevor Paul.

From the goalkeeper's clearance, Hendon built an attack and Wasell was relieved to watch a powerful strike from McDonagh bend away from the far post. He would not have been able to do anything about the shot if it had been just inside the post.

"This was a classic example of both teams cancelling each other out," said manager Tony Choules. With great understatement, he added, "It wasn't a great match but, on a positive note, we kept another clean sheet, our third in five games. Also Danny Julienne had an excellent debut."