There must be something at the moment about teams called LFC with dodgy foreign managers. All would appear to flatter to deceive briefly before disintegrating in a flurry of defensive frailty. Anything that Liverpool can do, Logica would appear to be able to do bigger and better. In Logica's previous two home games, they contrived to draw 4-4 after leading 2-0, 3-2 and 4-3, and last week they had lost 3-1 to CMR after leading 1-0 at half time. This week they contrived to crash out of the Cup despite leading 3-0 at half-time. Weekends are not much fun from a footballing perspective at the moment. Luckily I am a well-rounded person and there is more to life than football......

Another selection lottery finally delivered a healthy looking squad weighing in at 12. The mystical legend that is Sidaway was even "Selected...", a sure sign that things are getting desperate. Unfortunately the legend had to cry off at the last moment. The official reason given was some problem to do with Tenants (not clear whether Super or Extra) - the Gazza syndrome all over again?

Our opponents were all changed and warming up by the time Logica started to arrive in dribs and drabs. Was this the psychological upper ground gained before we had even kicked off? Well, no, because we usually turn up before our opposition and still end up losing. Any such advantage that might have been gained was wiped out inside three minutes as Logica took an early lead for the second game in a row. Jon Clarke poked an incisive pass through a square Eurocelts backline, and whilst their keeper wondered whether to advance or stay on his line, Abbott curled a precise finish into the top-right hand corner (1-0).

The initiative duly wrestled, Logica settled back to play some controlled passing football against increasingly flustered opponents. Scholes was causing mayhem as usual down the left, and breaking from deep he spotted a run from Abbott and looped a long, high cross towards the far side of the penalty area. Abbott was not in a mood to mess about and volleyed the cross first-time superbly into the bottom left hand corner from the edge of the penalty area (2-0). The goalkeeper didn't move. An early contender for Goal-of-the-Season says this unbias commentator. Just before the break, Logica added a third and this should have killed the game. From a long throw by Toman, Abbott turned his defender sharply only to be upended. He duly tucked away the resultant penalty (3-0) to complete his hat-trick, and maintain his record of never having missed a penalty for Logica in over 10 years.

Half-time brought forth many cliches about not getting complacent, and that we can only beat ourselves. It is a shame you don't get three points for beating yourself, because we'd be top of the league. To be fair Logica were somewhat distracted by Eurocelts' left-back heaving his guts up as the game restarted, and we completely lost our passing rhythm. Eurocelts began to see more of the ball, but it was only a fluke goal that changed the course of this cup-tie. A mis-hit cross from the right touch-line somehow looped over stand-in keeper Fleming (3-1). Shortly afterwards Toman went off injured, and his and Scholes left-wing dominance was lost. Heads dropped visibly, the passing went awry and we had a game of two halves on our hands. Logica suddenly looked very dodgy against crosses into the penalty area and slowly Eurocelts crept back into the game, 3-2, 3-3 and with 5 minutes left they unbelievably took a 4-3 lead. Wood and Appleyard then somehow combined to miss a two-on-one opportunity with the keeper, but to Logica's credit they showed enough character to pull it back to 4-4. Scholes was the architect again, releasing Abbott who advanced into the penalty area before squaring to Spence who slotted home.

Extra time was to prove a severe test of Logica's fitness and "mental toughness". Within minutes Eurocelts had regained the lead, and there was no coming back a second time. Before the extra time interval it was 6-4, and a third goal a minute from the end rubbed more salt into a demoralised Logica's wounds. This calamatous collapse rivalled the famous Morganite game of a few years back, when from 5-1 up with twenty minutes left we somehow allowed our opponents to fight back to 5-5. Abbott also scored a hat-trick that day. Perhaps Logica would be better off if he went back to not scoring.