Ryman League Premier Division

Hendon lost their fourth match in succession on Saturday afternoon as they went down 2-1 to Aveley, who will be delighted to go home with three points as they bid to avoid relegation.

It was a deserved win for the Essex side, purely because the Greens' performance in the first half hour was extremely flat and lacking in urgency.

Gary McCann gave a debut to on-loan keeper Nick Morgan, whilst James Parker made his long awaited comeback from injury, replacing Daniel Sintim. There were two other changes as Brian Haule and Kevin Maclaren replaced Aaron Morgan and Lubomir Guentchev. There was a further boost with Greg Ngoyi returning from injury to be on the bench.

Aveley had a chance to draw first blood as early as the second minute but Tamer Tuna's free kick flew safely wide of the goal. However, this only delayed the opening goal by a few minutes. In the 9th minute, Nick Morgan failed to read a ball across his goalmouth, and at the far post Tony Russell was able to bundle the ball home.

A good passing move involving Casey Maclaren, Scott Cousins, Jamie Busby and Belal Aite-Ouakrim saw the ball played through the defensive line to Aite-Ouakrim, but he was caught just offside. Shortly afterwards, Aite-Ouakrim had another half chance when John Fletcher fired a cross into the box, but it was just too far ahead of the striker.

Apart from the aforementioned chances, the Greens were rarely in the game, and they were made to pay for their lack of urgency in the 23rd minute. Danny Slatter received the ball in the middle of the park, and was able to carry the ball forwards completely unchallenged, with no Hendon player appearing to make an effort to close him down. From 30 yards out, he let rip with an excellent strike which simply flew into the net giving Nick Morgan very little chance of reaching the ball despite his 6'7" frame.

Going two goals down did appear to begin to spark some life into the home side, and on the half-hour mark, Aite-Ouakrim broke through the defensive line, but was only able to shoot over the bar.

Three minutes later, the Greens had pulled a goal back. Scott Cousins swung a corner into the box and Brian Haule rose to flick the ball home with his head for his first goal in nearly three months.

Some good work from Busby and Aite-Ouakrim fed the ball into Haule, but a superb tackle from Russell put the ball out for a corner just as Haule was about to pull the trigger. Then just before half-time, Haule nearly scored again in what would have been a carbon copy of his earlier goal, but Cousins' corner went just over his head.

The second half saw the Greens play much better, and throughout the half they had considerably more possession than their opponents. However, they found the Essex side in unforgiving mood and limiting chances to a premium.

In the first five minutes of the half, the Greens had two free kicks in and around the box, but Cousins saw his effort go straight to the keeper, whilst Casey Maclaren headed a Busby free kick just over the bar.

Hendon continued to probe away, with John Fletcher and Aite-Ouakrim probably the pick of the players, both working extremely hard, and indeed Fletcher was able to deliver a number of good quality crosses into the box, only to find the Aveley defence in fine form and clearing the ball.

Greg Ngoyi and Danny Dyer were introduced to the action in the 72nd minute, and Ngoyi was unfortunate when he was unable to quite get a touch on a loose ball that was flying across the six yard box. The Greens' final chance fell to Busby when his drive was initially fumbled by Dave McCartney, but the Aveley keeper was able to dive on the ball before it crossed the line.

For the remaining few minutes, Aveley did their best to run the clock down by taking the ball into the corners, and they appeared to be mightily relieved when the final whistle blew. Meanwhile, Hendon will be rueing that first half-hour of the game when their apparent lack of urgency led to them falling two goals behind.

The Greens will be hoping to put their league form behind them on Tuesday night as they travel to Staines Town in the semi finals of the Middlesex Senior Cup.

Team : N.Morgan, Fletcher (Guentchev 82), Cousins, C.Maclaren, Parker, Peacock, K.Maclaren (Dyer 72), Haule (Ngoyi 72), A.Morgan, Aite-Ouakrim, Busby. Unused subs : Burgess, Coke.