Gone is the crowd-pleasing Supremo Clarke and his entertaining brand of minimalist football. The new regime is in place and this was the first chance to see what fruit the novel idea of pre-season training would bear. A banana perhaps? This was the first time that Logica had kept a clean sheet in a competitive game since March 1995, when we also ground out a scoreless draw, Cultural being the opponents on that occasion. In fact, this statistic provides conclusive evidence to support the Clarke footballing philosophy. In the last two and a half years, we have not won a single game in which we have kept a clean sheet. On the contrary, there have been a significant number (eight) of games during this period in which we have conceded goals and yet still won. It is clear we must concentrate on conceding more goals - bring back Clarkie, all is forgiven! The more optimistic amongst you may observe that this was Logica’s first point on the opening day of the season since 1993, the occasion that Kevin Spence played and scored the day after he got married. I’m not sure, however, what might be interpreted from this particular statistic.

A minute’s silence for Diana set a sombre mood, and the early football did little to raise spirits. More depressing still was the re-emergence of football hooliganism, only twenty minutes into the new season. The game was held up for a number of minutes when the linesman suffered a hail of abuse from Logica’s infamous section of support known as the ICF. Once order had been restored, Logica began to shake off the unfamiliarity bred by a batch of promising newcomers, and started to put some decent moves together. The best of these saw Johnson feed Abbott, who picked out new striker Nigel Hoyland making an excellent run clear on goal. Visions of a debut goal were swiftly shattered by a crunching tackle from behind, but Logica’s appeals for a penalty went unheeded.

The second half saw the largely untroubled Spence replaced by Johninho in goal, and three pre-planned substitutions add fresh legs. Khellia dominated possession but did little more to threaten in the danger areas due to a solid Logica back-line in which Tim Appleyard excelled. His excellent reading of the game coupled with some sturdy tackling maintained the away side’s clean sheet on more than one occasion. At other times Johninho displayed some eccentric but effective goal-minding techniques (surely the day-dreaming Teessider must be given permanent recognition for his undoubted goalkeeping talents? - Ed), and when everything else failed, luck came to Logica’s rescue. A free header from one of many Khellia corners hit the inside of the post and was somehow cleared.

Despite doing the bulk of the defending, Logica’s infrequent counter-attacks were swiftly executed and looked most likely to break the deadlock. Abbott and Spence combined well as first the former and then the latter were sent clear to fire in crosses just an agonising few inches away from the marauding Trovato’s extremities. With seconds left, a ball into the channel gave Abbott the opportunity to perform a tarty back-heel in the box to Spence. The multi-talented Scot fed Trovato who in turn pushed the ball wide to the unmarked Toman. The Ketsbaia look-alike hit a first time shot superbly, but unluckily for Logica straight at the opposition keeper.

So the new-look Logica had obtained a vital point to get the season underway, and some of the newcomers performances give great hope for a bright future. Appleyard was exceptional. Jon Clarke began nervously but demonstrated great quality as the first half progressed. Pace, Hoyland and Burdett all showed good competitive spirit and bursts of skill that will find them pressing for regular selection over the coming weeks. In all, the new regime can be quietly satisfied that the introduction of pre-season training and a wide-area scouting network that are already paying dividends