Hendon boss Gary McCann took charge of his 500th Greens match on Monday evening and admitted he never thought he would reach that “mammoth milestone”.

McCann was appointed Greens boss in February 2005 and is the club’s longest serving managers.

So far in his reign as manager he has overseen 385 league games, 148 of which have been victories.

However, it wasn’t a victorious milestone for McCann as a late penalty was scored by Jack Ainsley and that was enough to secure a narrow win for Lowestoft Town.

“It would have been nice to celebrate the 500th game with a win but it wasn’t to be,” McCann said. “When I took over nine years ago I would never have expected to reach that mammoth milestone.

“I am very proud of the record. It hasn’t always been easy, sometimes it has been very difficult. But I have always enjoyed it.”

During his reign McCann admits he has had four of five offers to leave the Greens but said he didn’t feel it was the right choice.

He explained: “I have never felt the time was right or it was not a step forward for me. I have a great affinity for this club and there will come a time when I will have a tough decision to make.”

On Saturday, Hendon recorded a 1-0 win against Metropolitan Police as Adam Wallace struck in the second period.

The Greens remain in eighth place and are still just eight points off the play-offs. McCann says his side remain outsiders to reach the play-offs but believes his players will give everything to achieve their goal.

He said: “There are teams around us who have much bigger budgets but I know what we have got in that changing room and they will give everything.”