Hendon lost 1-0 at Canvey Island on Saturday as the Gulls continued to hold a 16-point lead at the top of the Ryman League Premier Division. The Greens, however, dropped a place in the table, to 6th.

Those simple facts don't come close to describing the events that took place at Park Lane, dominated by the extraordinary - and virutally unprecedented - nature of Canvey's goal.

It is rare enough for a referee to change the direction of a free-kick, and this has only happened on the intervention of a linesman/assistant referee, who had seen a different, normally earlier, offence. In this case, the Mr Pryme simply pointed in the wrong direction.

After 27 minutes, a routine aerial challenge just inside the centre circle in the Hendon half resulted in a free-kick. The Hendon player appeared to climb on his Canvey opponent, although a case could be made that home man had made a back.

Mr Pryme pointed that the free-kick was Hendon's and 20 of the 22 players prepared for that scenario. The exceptions were Steve Dobinson and Lee Boylan. Dobinson took the kick and passed to Boylan.

Suddenly BOYLAN had 45 yards of space between him and the Hendon goal and the Division's top goalscorer needed no second bidding to run and shoot past Dave King, who had come forward to take the free-kick and had to scurry back.

Unsurprisingly, Mr Pryme was besieged by irate Hendon players, who couldn't understand how a Canvey player had not only taken their free-kick, but also they had scored from it.

Manager Dave Anderson made his feelings known, something that the assistant referee considered unacceptable. After a brief consultation, Mr Pryme went up to Mr Anderson and, according to the Hendon boss, said, "I'm sorry I made a mistake, but you have still got to leave the dugout." Mr Anderson replied, "That's your second mistake."

The sad fact is that the referee's decision - he should have immediately halted play when Dobinson took the quick free-kick, citing either a rolling ball or it being taken from the wrong place, anything that would have allowed the Hendon defenders to get back into position - resulted in the game's only goal.

It overshadowed another thrilling encounter between two teams who have the utmost respect for each other, on and off the pitch. Canvey's central defender and former England captain Steve Ward admitted, "Hendon gave us more trouble than any other team to come this season. Some teams have not created a single good chance, but you had many."

With Mark Burgess suspended, Andy Cook injured and Fabien Forde dropped, Mark Cooper, Jon-Barrie Bates and Ricci Crace came into the starting line-up. No less than four attacking players were named to the subs' bench including new signing Dwayne Plummer.

Canvey started the game in confident fashion and could have been 4-0 up in the opening 8 minutes. Chief culprit in the profligacy stakes was Ollie Berquez, who squandered 2 of them.

When Hendon finally escaped from their own end, they put the home defence under pressure and Steve Forbes, Crace and Eugene Ofori combined to set up Scott Cousins with a chance to shoot from 16 yards. His shot had the power to sting Danny Potter's hands, but not the direction to beat him.

Chances came and went at both ends, with King being the busier goalkeeper. Crace was the next Hendon player to come close to scoring. He should have done better as he met a free-kick curled in by Cousins because, having beaten Ben Chenery, he had a free header, but glanced the ball wide of the far post.

Then came the moment of insanity from the referee that gave Canvey the lead.

But Hendon showed great spirit and twice came close to equalising within a couple of minutes. First, good approach play from Steve Forbes and Crace led to a scramble on the edge of the penalty area and a snapshot from Ofori flew inches over the crossbar.

In the 34th minute, Ofori was sent clear by an astute pass from Dean Brennan. It was perfectly weighted and Ofori had only Potter to beat. His shot, however, missed the near post by a few inches and Canvey escaped.

Just four minutes later, Mr Pryme marched back a wall all of 7 yards as Brennan lined up a 22-yard free-kick. The free-kick, however, was a disappointment and the wall did its job, blocking the shot.

In the last minutes of the half, King produced a magnificent save to deny Dave Theobald, Berquez, after some outrageous skill from the talented Boylan, and Neil Gregory, the best of the lot.

The strengthening wind was at Hendon's back in the second half and it certainly aided the Greens, because they had a lot more possession.

Unfortunately for the Dons, the first incident of note was a caution for Crace, who had been caught offside and was running back towards his own goal when Potter drilled the free-kick into his back. Mr Pryme only heard the contact and didn't see the incident, but still saw fit to show a yellow card, although the Hendon striker was jogging in retreat - the opposite of encroaching.

In the 51st minute, Berquez limped off with a muscle pull and he was replaced by Steve Parmenter, who lacked the incisiveness of the midfielder, who had netted a hat-trick a week earlier.

On the counter-attack, Canvey are probably more dangerous than when they have periods of possession. In the 63rd minute, Boylan escaped the attention of Mark Cooper a fired a dipping volley from 18 yards that King saved at full stretch. Given the extreme pressure exerted on them for much of the game, youngsters Antony Howard and Marien Ifura did well

The Hendon caution count reached 5, as Jon-Barrie Bates, Cousins and Plummer all saw yellow. Plummer, who had replaced Brennan in the 71st minute, was lucky to stay on the field when he reacted to a late tackle after his first touch in a Hendon shirt.

His next contribution was much more positive. In the 80th minute, Plummer fired in a shot that Potter did well to push away for a corner. When the ball came over, Cooper and Forbes just failed to get a telling touch.

A final, desperate gamble saw Martin Randall and Fabien Forde replace Crace and Bates for the final few minutes and it almost paid off. As the game moved into stoppage time, Forbes found Randall in space inside the box. The shot slid off Randall's boot and was arrowing inside the near post, but Potter did well to palm aside the effort.

"This was great game, but it was ruined by an official," bemoaned Mr Anderson. "I am very proud of the performance, but this is the bitterest I have ever felt after a game.

"We have nothing but respect for Jeff King and his team, and I am sure they feel the same way about us. As for the goal, Canvey did nothing wrong, they just took advantage of the situation. Even their players couldn't understand what the referee was doing."