Hendon 1-2 Tiverton Town

Hendon suffered a 2-1 loss at the hands of second place Tiverton town in a well contested game at the Silver Jubilee Park. Neither team really dominated, in a game that saw the ball switch possession constantly and the play stay predominantly in midfield. Sergio Manesio was put on the wing for Hendon in place of the suspended Kameron English and coming in at number 4 was new signing Kieron Forbes from Biggleswade town.

The biggest chance of the opening 20 minutes went to the home team, Shaun Lucien hitting the Tiverton crossbar in the 16th minute. In the 20th minute, Hendon winger Isaac Galliford stormed down the right wing and sent a cross in right across the Tiverton goal that no-one got on the end of. Despite this Tiverton began to keep hold of the ball better but weren’t able to bypass a compact Hendon press. One rare occasion where they did saw and energetic run from Tiverton left back Noah Smerdon and forcing a corner for the visitors. In the 33rd minute Tiverton came close, Patrick Ohman, stepping in for Chris Grace, tipped Jared Lewington’s header against the bar which was cleared by an overhead kick from a Hendon player. Tiverton began to push forward more but it was Hendon who came closest to opening the scoring in the last five minutes of the first half. A bit of trickery from Lucien put him clear on the left wing. He hit a cross that was blocked by the Tiverton defender and whilst appeals for handball were denied, Corey Panter smashed a shot over the Tiverton crossbar.

Six minutes into the second half Tiverton took the lead Jordan Bastin running through, lobs the ball over Ohman, 0-1. After this Tiverton began to push forward, but Hendon continued to defend well and provided a threat on the counter attack. Galliford crossed into Hendon substitute Reece Mitchell, who was brought down in the box, appeals for a penalty were waved away. Three minutes later Hendon equalised. Galliford sprinted down the centre and passed the ball out to Tahjae Anderson on the left wing, who crosses it back into the centre to Galliford who heads it in, 1-1. Though the joy was short lived as just three minutes later the ball came to Tiverton’s Joshua Key on the right wing who beat his defender and slotted the ball into the far corner, 1-2. Hendon began to push forward again but the play became more or less end to end from then on, neither team were able to dominate the ball. It got worse for Hendon, a rash challenge from Manesio saw him receive his second yellow, ruling him out of next weekend’s match against Blackfield & Langley. In stoppage time, in a last ditch effort to salvage a point, Hendon sent Ohman up for a corner. The ball came to Lucien who blast the ball over the Tiverton bar. Full time, the score line 2-1 to the visitors, and Hendon were now back in the bottom three.