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A brisk Sunday morning in April and Logica FC are completely Lagless, possibly due to a certain Legends' tier one free-beer-fest to celebrate notching his 40th! Mid-table mediocrity seemingly secured and the FIFA Logica World Cup less than one month away, the Logica FC Director of Football Simon Groom delegates carte blanche control to England Pup manager Davinder Gautam.

Gautam's previous managerial experience at the helm of Logica FC resulted in an emphatic 4-0 victory over Townmead in the opening game of the season. Undoubtedly buoyed by this fact and unperturbed by the absence of Lags, Gautam took the opportunity in his stride. His first managerial decision of the day will undoubtedly cause a multitude of ripples throughout the Logica FC fiefdom. Bucking current and previous Supremo-ship trends Gautam elected to play Craig Taylor in his preferred position as a striker. Incumbent strikers should take note.

Taylor has already shown a talent for scoring goals, last season he notched the goal of the season in the match against Chelsea, was top scorer for the England Pups at last years World Cup and has already bagged 6 goals from midfield this season. The 6 goals have come from 3 braces with the hat-trick being oh-so elusive.

So it was that Gautam fielded an almost full-strength Pups team, notable exceptions included Hatton Minor, Fleming and Denyer. The line-up was to be a standard 4-4-2 Pendleton in goal. Groom, Hatton Snr, Trovato and Mainwaring in a flat back four. Captain Gautam and impressive new signing Loriot in the middle of the park, flanked by Brown on the left and Clarke on the right. Banoub was the chosen strike partner for Taylor.

Archers kicked-off defending the tube station end at the Boston Manor Stadium and in a typical Logica FC start to the game the opposition quickly got the upper hand. The defence dealt with a quick succession of corners adequately. Archers were determined to make a nuisance of themselves all over the pitch and consistently outsized, outbattled and outplayed their opponents.

The inevitable Archers breakthrough came from some sloppy passing in the middle of the park by the reds, a decent through ball, and a quick striker beat Pendleton to the ball on the edge of his box to slot home (0-1). Archers quickly doubled their lead through a free-kick conceded on the Logica left. The ball was floated to the back post and found three Archers players to one Logica man, who was unable to prevent the ball being bumbled into the goal (0-2).

Many Logica heads were visibly seen to drop, as they feared a rout. One man however contrived to show some spirit, that man was Sandric Loriot. After some tenacious battling on the left of midfield he found himself competing with the Archers right back for pace. The impressive Frenchman was the winner and a simple low cross to the front post was gratefully side footed past the 'keeper by Taylor (1-2).

Inspired by the Gallic spirit Logica now seemed determined to make a game of it, some tidy football ensued as Logica gained in confidence. One particular move was of note, starting out on the right, the ball was moved inside to Taylor who lifted a neat left footed pass to Brown in space on the left. The CCO controlled the ball on his chest and onto his feet in one smooth move. Brown took the ball to the corner and exchanged with Gautam and Loriot, the resulting cross was just too high for Taylor arriving at the back post.

Logica's resurgence was far from complete as more sloppy passing from Logica in the middle of the park gave Archers a virtual carbon copy of their first goal (1-3). The Logica goal was breached again as a good Archers move found their centre forward advancing on Pendleton and neatly finishing again (1-4). Archers also managed to hit the post before the half time whistle was sounded.

Gautam's words must have peeled the paint of the dressing room walls at half-time because the Logica performance in the second half was dramatically different. Straight from the kick-off Loriot floated a telling ball towards Taylor racing into the Archers box. Unfortunately the Leeds man couldn't control the bouncing ball sufficiently to beat his man and the ball was cleared for a throw in.

Logica kept up the pressure and had claims for a penalty dismissed as Loriot nut-megged (or "through the bridge" as the Frenchman later put it) the outsized centre back only to be flatly blocked by the big man. Loriot unused to 'zis side of ze English game' was suitably miffed. He would soon learn.

A Jon Clarke corner from the left cleared the men at the front post to find itself at Paul Banoub on the six-yard line. Noobie couldn't quite control his reaction volley enough and sent the ball high and wide of the goal.

Gautam made two changes early in the second half, replacing the tiring Groom with Mercer Field and brought on Hoyland in a straight swap for Banoub. Brown switched to right back, allowing Mercer the left midfield role. Brown immediately seemed more comfortable in the full back position with a number of tenacious challenges on the slippery left winger and some intelligent cover play behind the centre-backs. Field settled quickly into the game and almost scored with his first touch after a good move found his volley fly wide of the target.

Both Hatton Major and Trovato had a full-time job keeping the Archers centre forward from affecting the game further. The big number nine made excellent use of his size and strength by holding up the ball well and away from the two Logica centre-backs. Archers had a number of notable chances; first hitting the bar and then numerous through balls which beat the flat Logica defence, but which could either not be put past Pendleton or were squeezed just wide.

As Logica managed to soak up the Archers pressure they broke quickly on the attack. It was that man Loriot who made the difference; a Logica break on the right found him on the edge of the box beating his man and pushing the ball between the last two Archers defenders. Sandric was unceremonially sandwiched between them and brought down just inside the box. Penalty! Taylor stepped up to take it and a low shot to the keeper's right was too strong for the keeper to stop (2-4).

Loriot was again the instigator of the next Logica goal as some tough tackling and fluid skill found him on the left bye-line. A smart cross to the front post found Hoyland turning tightly between two Archers defenders and the keeper to force the ball over the line (3-4).

Football wouldn't be such an involving game without its moments of controversy; and this game certainly had one of those moments. It was the offside rule combined with the referee's interpretation of interfering with play that caused the controversy. As the Logica defence stepped out to trap the Archers centre forward a good ten yards offside, the ball was played forward within two yards of the blatantly offside attacker to the left winger running behind him. As the Logica defence stopped to question the referee's decision, the winger slipped the ball passed the stationary Pendleton (3-5). Whether the decision was correct or not, Logica certainly fell foul of one of the oldest clichés in Jez Brown's book; play until the whistle!

A spark of hope came from Jon Clarke as Logica attempted to beat the Archers at their own game. A sweet through ball from the midfield playmaker found both Hoyland and Taylor beating the Archers back line. Taylor even had Hoyland beaten for pace as he raced through to control the ball and advance on the keeper. Taylor took his opportunity from outside the box with the keeper getting the slightest of fingertip touches to the ball, but unable to prevent the ball from making its journey into the onion-bag (4-5).

Both sides created chances in the remaining 15 minutes, Archers most notable was from a corner. The ball was cleared out of the box and fell to the Archers playmaker and he hit the ball very sweetly through the crowd of players; Pendleton saw it late and had to check his dive and throw a reactionary hand upwards to tip the ball over for another corner. Clearly atoning to the Football Gods for previous misjudgements.

Rafferty was introduced on 80 minutes for Clarke and Logica had unsuccessful half-chances from Taylor and Hatton. But despite a good amount of pressure were unable to equalise before the final whistle.

Post match comments from Gautam concluded that he was happy with the quality of football played in the second half and the least said about the first half the better. Asked about his team's chances in the World Cup, Gautam conceded that a few key players needed to be sharper and that this team needs to play together again.