Hendon ruined all their good work from Tuesday night by producing what manager Gary McCann described as “possibly the worst performance since I have been here as manager.” The game was a mirror image of the victory at AFC Hornchurch, with the visitors having two substitutes on the field for the second half, trailing 1–0, scoring twice in three minutes in the final 20 minutes, and one of the scorers being sent off for two cautions in stoppage time.

The injured Kevin Maclaren was replaced in the starting line-up by Lubomir Guentchev in an otherwise unchanged team, with Mark Kirby named as a substitute after missing the last few games.

Margate – who have just appointed former Welsh internationals Terry Yorath and Neville Southall as first-team manager and coach, respectively, for the remainder of the season – made the brighter start with a Daniel Stubbs 25-yard dipping shot which Richard Wilmot did well to tip over the crossbar.

For all their pressure, Margate’s frailty this season has been at the back and their cause wasn’t helped by Roberto Corbishley suffering an ankle injury after just ten minutes and he was replaced by Keiron Morris.

When Hendon finally were able to launch an attack worth the name, they made it pay. After 25 minutes, a through ball from the half-way line saw Harry Hunt tussling with Dan Young. The striker outpaced the Gate defender and as Mullin narrowed the angle, HUNT fired a superb shot just inside the far post.

Three minutes later, Hunt set up Brian Haule, who hit a first time shot against the foot of Mullin’s right post with the goalkeeper well beaten. The rebound was cleared by a pair of grateful Margate defenders.

Hendon players were being frustrated by Margate’s tight marking and their inability to make another breakthrough. One good chance fell to Guentchev who, having done the hard work in creating an opening ruined it by firing off target with both Hunt and Haule better positioned. If the shot had been on target, a case could have been made for the shot being taken, but as it missed, it had to be considered the wrong option.

Although the Greens had been disjointed, they had not been unduly threatened by Margate for whom Ebenezer Masade three times slipped over to ruin promising positions. At half-time, Margate removed Stubbs in favour of Kenny Pratt and he boosted Gate’s attacking presence significantly.

That said, Hendon really didn’t help themselves. The midfield had a collective off-day, leaving Haule and Hunt hopelessly isolated up front, this against a defence that was hardly brimming with confidence.

After 53 minutes, Charlie Mapes invited Hunt to chase a through ball. He just about beat Mullin to the ball, some ten yards outside the penalty area, but the goalkeeper brought him down heavily. The referee instantly produced a yellow card, Hunt not running directly at goal and a covering defender ensuring that it was not a certain goalscoring opportunity. Marc Leach’s free-kick missed the target.

Two minutes later, from a Margate free-kick, Young headed the ball against the foot of a Hendon post. The ball rebounded to Mo Takaloo, four yards from goal, but he somehow scooped it over the crossbar.

Hendon should then have made the game safe when Hunt did well to get around the defence. He laid the ball into the path of Guentchev, whose first touch was not his most assured and as the ball did not come down kindly for him, he was forced to snatch at his shot and sent it wide of the goal.

In the 72nd minute, as Haule shot at goal he was caught by a defender. The ball went wide, but the referee gave Hendon a free-kick. This time Mapes took it and forced Mullin into a spectacular save, pushing the ball out for a corner.

Mapes took the corner and curled the ball straight into the arms of Mullin, who quickly threw the ball out to Wayne Wilson. Wilson sent the ball to Masada, who fed Pratt. The ball from Pratt was perfectly weighted for WILSON who shot past Wilmot for the equaliser.

And, three minutes later, things went from bad to worse for Hendon. A 30-yard drive from Wilson, dipped and swerved just in front of Wilmot, who could only parry the ball away from him. It dropped to the feet of TAKALOO and this time the striker made no mistake.

At this point Hendon finally made a change, bringing on Glen Garner for Mapes. He did have one shot, but it was off target.

In the final seven minutes, Mullin saved the game for Margate by making three good saves. Having already made clean catches of drives from Mapes and James Burgess, first he dived to his right to deny Lee O’Leary; then he somehow tipped a deflected Leach header just over the bar; and, finally, in stoppage time, he went full length to stop a rasping drive from Hunt.

A furious Mr McCann said, “It was far from good enough today. I said to the players in the dressing-room at half-time that if we performed like that in the second half, we would return here having lost.

“In the second half we were worse than we were in the first. Too many players had flaky performances. The secret of being a good side is being consistent and we are not consistent at the moment. All the good work from Tuesday was undone today.”

As for Mr Yorath, he was delighted, saying, “We have had string of bad results, and we were 1–0 down at half-time. We shut them down really well in the second half and deserved to win.”

(Report by David Ballheimer - Not to be reproduced without prior permission)