Hello and welcome to the first home game of the season.

It's been an unusual start to the season in that we've had no opportunity to flex our muscles in home surroundings. For this we can thank the fixture computer, but today that all changes as we play our first home fixture at the Stade d'Ilea.

And what a match too, as we entertain Leeds Old Boys in the first round proper of the Ron Halfacre Challenge Cup. There's little scouting intelligence on our opponents at the moment, since the club was only formed in the summer, but we can only hope they're as good as Leeds Utd away from home! The Old Boys have only played one game this season, which they won by three goals to two, so they're likely to be a confident little outfit.

The first round of the cup this year has dipped Logica into unfamiliar waters. As many of you are no doubt aware, we're normally the underdogs going into these games. This is mainly down to the reformatting of the cup competitions. In previous seasons we've been in the lowest participating division for the particular cup that we were entered into, but now we are in the highest. This should in theory give us a much better opportunity to win the cup! But on the flip side, the teams from the Third Division will want to beat their Goliathian opponents, and as we're bottom of Division Two, Leeds OB will doubtless fancy their chances of causing an upset against us.

So what's gone wrong this year? In preparing for the new campaign, I was looking at promotion as a definite possibility, but our start to the season certainly doesn't justify my pre-season optimism. Well, long term injuries to midfield players such as , and hasn't helped. And with currently juggling between playing and refereeing, getting a settled midfield early doors has been a big problem for the club. We can't forget , either, who has accepted a generous offer from a Swedish club, and he will be very difficult to replace.

On the positives, though, is the early season form of , who was outstanding against both Olympia and Everyman. He surely would have continued this form into the FC Broadway match, had that game taken place. We also welcome back after his year in foreign climes - I'm sure he's learnt a thing or two from the Brazilians! We have to also remember that we aren't getting beaten out of sight, and, in fact, have had periods in both games where we've been the better side. It's just been a problem maintaining a suitable level of performance throughout the full ninety minutes due to a lack of match fitness, but hopefully that's a problem which will shortly go away.

Some of you may have heard strange murmurings in the camp, along the lines that and could be plying their trade in unfamiliar offensive vein. Well, I'm here to categorically state that the rumour is indeed true. These man-mountains of the modern game will indeed be getting a run out up front sooner rather later. There is also some truth in the rumour that could be appearing in a midfield near you very soon. Watch this space... [The opposing forwards certainly will be - Bench-warming Ed]

Finally, some clarification on last Sunday's non-fixture against FC Broadway, and the award of the points. The usual course of events would see us get the three points, as Broadway were suspended on the Monday prior to the match. However, this case isn't as cut and dried as that. The team were indeed suspended, but the league knew that they'd be cleared to play by Tuesday morning, so they were happy for the game to go ahead. The problem was that no one from Broadway turned up at League HQ to organise the game, since they knew they were suspended; so the league carried on and arranged the fixture anyway [apparently neglecting to tell anyone from Broadway?!? Apoplectic Ed]. So that is the current situation and the League Mandarins have yet to decide whether we'll get the points or not.

That's all for this week. Enjoy the game, and I hope you'll all be cheering on a Logica win!