Hendon boss Gary McCann has admitted his frustration after the Greens’ play-off plans were thrown into limbo but remains fully focused on capping an unbelievable season by winning promotion.

The Greens had been due to take on fifth-placed Enfield Town in the Isthmian Premier Division play-off semi-finals tomorrow evening (Thursday) but both play-off matches – with Margate facing Dulwich Hamlet in the other – have been postponed pending the outcome of the Towners’ ineligible player case.

Town have since been deducted three points by the Isthmian League and although they will appeal, Hendon now look set to face Metropolitan Police, who will leapfrog them into fifth.

Bradley Quinton’s side were found guilty of fielding an ineligible player, Aryan Tajbakhsh, in two matches when he should have been suspended following his switch from VCD Athletic.

Enfield beat Hendon 1-0 in the first of the two matches Tajbakhsh should have missed.

After correspondence with the four sides involved in the play-offs, the Isthmian League have postponed the play-offs until such a time as Enfield’s involvement can be confirmed.

“Frustration is the word,” said Greens boss McCann. “There was anger there too when they were allowing the Margate v Dulwich Hamlet game to go ahead. But we made it clear we felt it would be an unfair advantage when the league emailed us and now it has been postponed too.

“We have done nothing wrong so we are frustrated. But we can’t control the uncontrollable, which is something I have been saying a lot this week.

“We have just got to keep our focus and our minds on the job in hand. We have worked hard for 46 games to get here, it is not like we have just gone through a few rounds of the cup, so it is important we don’t lose sight of how hard we have worked to get here.”

Promotion would cap a barely believable season for the Greens and McCann, who has overcome budget cuts and being homeless to nestle between the much-fancied and well-financed Maidstone United and Margate to secure a play-off place, even running the eventual winners Maidstone close for the title until the final weeks of the season.

“It is the best season [I have had here] because we are judged as a club and as a manager by where you finish in the table,” explained McCann. “I am sure there have been bigger individual highlights in the past but over the course of the whole season it is unbelievable.”

Every cloud has a silver lining though, and for Hendon that means the chance for their walking wounded to recover. And McCann could be able to call upon Kevin Maclaren, Tony Taggart and Sam Murphy when the play-offs finally get underway.