Hampton 3 Hendon 1 Newly-promoted Hampton, playing their first match at this level, shocked Ryman League Premier Division title favourites Hendon at the Beveree on Saturday. The final score of 3-1, however, was no reflection of how the game went.
That will be no comfort to Hendon manager Frank Murphy who also saw his side follow up this defeat by gaining just a point in their opening match at Claremont Road against Gravesend and Northfleet on Tuesday night.
After a sterile opening 10 minutes, Hampton enjoyed a similar period of territorial domination, but without causing a hint of danger to the Hendon defence in terms of shots or crosses. The closest effort was a free-kick from Jason Brown, hit straight at keeper Garry McCann.
Hendon roused themselves from their torpor towards the interval and looked threatening, if hardly penetrating. In the space of two minutes Steve Heard had a shot saved and Curtis Warmington headed just over.
Going into the break goalless, Hendon must have felt they had done more than half the job, stifling the eager Beavers, who had trumpeted this as the biggest league match in the club's history.
Things started going wrong, however, as after 57 minutes, Hampton launched a pass which eventually fell for Johnson Hippolyte, and he scored at the second attempt.
Hendon came back strongly and got their reward midway through the half when Junior Lewis ran on to a through ball and raced clear before Warren Drew pulled him back inside the penalty area.
Paul Whitmarsh took the spot kick, but keeper Mark Russell guessed right and parried the ball away. Whitmarsh followed up, however, and rolled the ball into the net for the equaliser.
Hendon applied heavy pressure and Curtis Warmington, Jon Daly and Tony Kelly all went close while, at the other end, McCann was virtually a spectator.
However, the game suddenly swung away from Hendon. In the 82nd minute, Lewis lost out on a challenge just outside the Hampton penalty area and the ball was cleared to the halfway line where Brown carried it forward. He crossed to the far post and Hippolyte was waiting to slide the ball in from close range.
Hendon brought in ex-Yeading and Enfield midfielder Gary Fitzgerald for Kelly in a last-ditch attempt to salvage a point from the game but, from another long clearance out of defence, Brown, looking suspiciously offside, ran on to score and seal the points for the home side.
HENDON: McCann, Howard, Clarke, Warmington, Daly, Bateman, Heard, White (Bertelsen 66min), Whitmarsh, Kelly (Fitzgerald 87min), Lewis. Sub not used: Nugent.
Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000.Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article