Cray's promotion hopes took a knock with a 1-0 defeat at their main rivals Hendon on Tuesday night.

Hendon now hold fifth place, two points ahead of Cray although the Wands have a game in hand.

A bad night for Cray included a missed penalty, an injury to star striker Leigh Bremner, a last-minute goal disallowed, and a sending-off for manager Ian Jenkins after a verbal exchange from the dugout.

Making four changes from Sunday's team that lost disappointingly to Leatherhead, the Wands held their own in a lively end-to-end first half, but wasted a golden chance to take the lead when the referee saw the handball by a home defender in the 15th minute.

Lewis Perkins shot weakly from the penalty-spot and the 'keeper made an easy save.

Elliott Godfrey was just off target following two dangerous attacks by Hendon, and Belal Aite-Ouakrim missed a sitter on the 31st minute after forcing his way through on goal.

Bremner limped off in the 44th minute having hurt himself with a deflected shot that led to a corner-kick for Cray, with Danny Young heading straight at the 'keeper.

The decisive goal came on 50 minutes with Carl McCluskey cutting in from the right to fire Hendon into the lead.

After that Cray couldn't create any clear-cut chances, although a Danny Phillips shot forced a good save from Rikki Banks and the 'keeper later gathered the ball as Perkins got clear but had to shoot quickly.

It looked as though Cray had equalised in the 89th minute when Young's header went into the net, but the visitors' celebrations were halted when it was seen that the linesman had raised his flag.

Cray: Walker, Young, Willy, Saunders (Clark 77), Vines, Sterling, Perkins, Stavrinou, Bremner (Long 44), Phillips, Darvill. Subs not used: Whitnell, Power, Bentley.

Cray are away to East Thurrock United on Saturday (3pm) and the London Senior Cup semi-final at Kingstonian is now set to be played on 12 April.