PRE-SEASON optimism did not seem too far misplaced as Logica exploded out of the blocks to secure a comprehensive 4-0 victory over newly promoted Townmead in their first game of the season. A blistering first half performance saw some exquisite football and three superbly crafted goals. In a team performance in which all fourteen players excelled, Reevaldo was outstanding, scoring two and only being denied a hat-trick by his own somewhat foolhardy honesty. A more subdued second half performance still found Logica able to add a fourth goal, and, most impressively of all, keep a clean sheet.

Head Coach Dav Gautam can take much of the credit for the first three points of the season. Having deliberated hard and long about choosing his final fourteen, Gautam prepared the team in a very professional fashion. Pre-match stretching and jogging exercises were followed by a team-talk noticeably lacking the hollow cliches of many seasons past. Even Reevaldo's stroppy heckling from the back of the class failed to dampen a feeling of quiet confidence.

Logica, playing their first match at their new ILEA Stadium, started slowly as is their wont. Townmead looked a handy side, passing the ball about with no little competence, but Logica's back four looked strong. Jeff Hatton and Dave Richmond won everything in the air, and Paul Mainwaring and Phil Hatton added intelligent cover play in the full back positions.

Perhaps it just took a little while to get used to the superb playing surface. Too many seasons playing at the Morden Sports Ground has left its psychological scars, with the players convinced that there is a bobble waiting for them at every turn. Once convinced that the ILEA surface was indeed the bowling green that it appeared, Logica began to turn it on. And how!

For twenty-five minutes Logica tore Townmead apart, playing some breath-taking football. The midfield quartet of Clarke, Wood, Gautam and Reevaldo were playing some lovely one touch football, and Abbott and Hoyland up front were also combining to good effect. Abbott volleyed straight at the keeper after a Reevaldo cross had been weakly headed clear, before minutes later hitting a through-ball that Hoyland raced onto, but his shot was again well saved by the keeper.

Reevaldo had already been causing a fair amount of mayhem down the left wing before he opened the scoring in some style. Hoyland must take much of the credit for chasing down an aimless punt down the right wing when everyone else had assumed the ball would go out of play. Hoyland just kept the ball in play, sped to the bye-line before whipping in a vicious cross. The Townmead keeper just got a hand to the ball, deflecting it to the corner of the penalty area. Reevaldo had to double back, but his control was instant, and swivelling on a sixpence, the maverick fired an unstoppable shot over the flailing keeper and just under the bar from fifteen yards (1-0).

The Hackney hole-merchant was also instrumental in the second goal which followed shortly afterwards. Some sharp inter-play freed the wing-man down the left, and his cross seemed set for Jon Clarke to convert when Hoyland appeared from nowhere to attempt a header which only deflected the ball towards the corner flag. Clarke chased to keep the ball in play, and held it up before feeding Gautam in support. Everyone was expecting a cross when the Logica captain unleashed a blistering, curving shot from the angle of the penalty area into the top-left hand corner of the goal (2-0). It appeared that Logica were having their very own Goal of the Season competition, as Johnny Motson is apt to expostulate in such situations.

Logica continued to carve out chance after chance in fine style. Abbott fed a precise ball to release Hoyland down the right, and the striker's cross was headed just wide by Tim Wood, who had run from deep to get into such a good position. Hoyland was quickest to react to a high bouncing ball in the box, but somehow his thundering volley from point-blank range was deflected away by the keeper. A third goal was inevitable, and it duly came. The midfield pairing of Wood and Gautam passed their way crisply to the edge of the box, before the ball was played into the path of the advancing Reevaldo. The Walsall Wizard was onto it in a flash, rounding a desperate tackle with some ease, and unleashing a superb, swerving shot from 12 yards into the top corner (3-0).

Logica were not resting on their laurels, and Reevaldo nearly had his hat-trick minutes later. Another weaving run on the edge of the box left three more defenders for dead, but this time his attempt at a cheeky little dink over the advancing keeper didn't quite come off, the ball going wide of the right-hand upright.

Hoyland was just as much of a threat. After robbing a dallying defender to break clear, he was hauled to the ground and was desperately unlucky not to have a penalty awarded. However, since moments earlier Hoyland had himself kicked the self same defender in the chest in the act of attempting a completely outlandish overhead kick, there was perhaps some kind of justice in the decision. As half time approached another move found not one but two Logica players set free on goal. Hoyland took the initiative as he and Jon Clarke reached the ball at the same time, but the Sheffielder's low shot was a foot wide with the keeper beaten.

Predictably Logica couldn't keep up that kind of pace in the second half, and as the game wore on their lack of match fitness began to show. However the defence stood firm, and Townmead were restricted to just two chances. For once Hatton and Richmond were caught out as a Townmead forward broke clear, but Fleming in goal came out superbly to make a brave diving save at the striker's feet. Towards the end of the game, Abbott gave away possession near half way attempting an elaborate drag-back, and the robbing defender advanced to fire what seemed a goalbound shot. That is until Fleming leapt like a salmon to tip the ball over the bar at full stretch.

Even in third gear, Logica still created a number of good chances. Gautam blasted a superb shot a few inches too high before a fourth goal effectively killed the game as a contest. Mainwaring showed great vision to pick out Abbott in the channel with a lovely chipped pass. The striker cut back inside his marker and rolled the ball back to the marauding Reevaldo. With two goals to his name already, Reevaldo unselfishly tried to flick the ball on to the unmarked Hoyland. However the ball deflected off a defender and looped into the net past a completely wrong-footed keeper (4-0). Reevaldo showed great honesty after the match in refusing to claim the goal that would have given him his hat-trick. Whilst this is all highly commendable, it should be observed that one wouldn't catch Sidaway making such a schoolboy error.

The home side made a number of substitutions to keep the initiative. Craig Taylor came on to maintain Clarke's great work on the right flank, and Banoub and Denyer replaced the two danger-men, Reevaldo and Hoyland. Logica nearly added a fifth from an unlikely source as Mainwaring broke clear from left-back to take an Abbott pass on into the box, but was unlucky to see his hard, low shot brilliantly saved by the outstretched foot of the keeper. Banoub had the last chance of the game, just failing from eight yards to convert a low left-wing cross by Abbott. The Boro man bemoaned his bad luck after the game, asking why it was his chance that should find the only bobble on an otherwise perfect playing surface?!?

As the final whistle blew, Logica could be extremely satisfied with their performance. The whole team had contributed to an emphatic victory, and despite scoring four and creating a myriad of other chances, perhaps the most pleasing aspect was a clean sheet. New Supremo Simon Groom may have chosen a bad week to go on holiday, for if he follows the well-worn axiom that a winning side should never be changed, it will mean that he will be donning the sheepskin coat next Sunday rather than the canary shades of Logica's new strip.