They were in a different league. Although of course they're not. Just two minutes after the kick-off, two Lillington players effortlessly executed a swift interchange down the right flank. This move culminated with the Lillington midfielder stroking an apparently simple through-ball that bisected the Logica back four like a knife through butter. The home team's striker was on to it in a flash, and buried an unstoppable shot from yen yards past the helpless Groom in goal. Logica had been taken apart by the pace and sharpness of the Lillington attack, and it did not bode well. It was a nightmarish vision of what the visitors could expect during the next eighty-eight minutes.

Logica struggled to cope with the pace of Lillingtons attacks.

The players looked stunned, but did not do themselves any favours by gifting their opponents two further goals. In their next attack, Lillington won a free kick on the left wing as Logica struggled to deal with the quick and skilful passing that confronted them. The dead-ball kick was arrowed dangerously into the near post, and Mike Marsh, under pressure from an attacker, tried to head behind for a corner but only ended up deflecting the ball into his own net off the upper part of his arm. Brown would have been proud of his protégé. Groom's appeal for a penalty to be awarded to the opposition (rather than the goal) wreaked of desperation even at this early stage.

It was not long before Lillington were slicing through the Logica rearguard once more. A lofted pass left their striker in the clear, gamely pursued by stand-in right-back Nich Fazel. The Logica man's pace enabled him to catch up, but a last-ditch challenge found his opponent tumbling to the ground. There didn't appear to be a great deal of contact, and the referee also seemed a little unsure, for although awarding a free-kick, he should have sent Fazel off if he felt that it was a genuine foul. Sadly, it mattered little. A fairly tame strike trundled into the corner of the net past the statuesque Groom whose view had been obscured by his wall apparently.

Worse was to follow for the Supremo. Another marauding attack culminated in a miscued shot from the edge of the box which again meandered weakly Groomwards. The Logica keeper slowly bent down to collect the ball, and was probably already thinking about his next move when the ball embarrassingly rolled between his arms, his knees, and bobbled over the line. It was a schoolboy error (somewhat appropriate from a man who had been strutting his stuff at the "School Disco" until the wee small hours), and clearly a howler Logica could have done without in their already precarious situation.

Groom's luck did not improve when he failed to divert an admittedly slightly stronger volleyed shot on goal a few minutes later. Logica now had to face the rather unpleasant reality that they were 5-0 down with less than twenty minutes on the clock. Lillington were getting a tad on the arrogant side now, with all the tricks coming out of the locker as they swaggered around seemingly able to score at will. In the absence of Malcolm, who would surely just have responded to such piss-taking with some sophisticated brutality, Logica would have to show some character now if they were to avoid a defeat of truly humiliating proportions.

After a few tentative forays into enemy territory, they did finally ruffle a so-far unruffled Lillington defence. Abbott fed Reevaldo on the left touchline, and the hole-merchant nipped past one man, and cut back inside another only to be felled by an ill-timed lunge. The referee correctly spotted that the offence was in the area, and Abbott duly dispatched the spot-kick with some aplomb.

Logica were unlucky not to come closer to another goal, when Abbott's first time pass into the box found Reevaldo and Taylor in each other's way when unmarked, but ironically the visitors did then notch a second with a small degree of fortune. It was by far Logica's best move of the half, with Reevaldo and Tim Wood combining sweetly for the latter to play a defence splitting pass into the path of the anticipating Banoub. Logica's big number nine flicked the ball past the onrushing keeper, but it appeared that a covering defender would clear. Instead he sliced the ball horribly into the roof of his own net, and Banoub's attempt to claim the goal were brazen enough to demand the first sitting off the Logica Dubious Goals Committee. After much careful deliberation, this most democratic of quangos voted that the history books should record this strike as an own goal, by the fine margin of 54% to 46%.

Banoub goes in search of another assist.

Lillington were unphased by this brief interruption to their ascendancy, and continued on their brilliant, if somewhat cocky way, with two further goals before half time - one a thumping strike from 25 yards that fairly fizzed past the by-now quaking Groom. The half-time whistle was a welcome relief for the Logica players, and the Supremo was quick to pass the gloves on to substitute Harry Gill. A 7-2 interval deficit left little hope of victory, despite the five-goal second half salvo by Manchester United the previous day at White Hart Lane, but the Logica players at least demanded of each other that they play for some pride in the second half.

To their credit, they did exactly this, and were rewarded with a couple more goals It was Wood again who created Logica's third goal after once more combining with Reevaldo. The Logica midfielder, who was returning to the fray after a sabbatical travelling around South America, showed some Brazilian flare to slip an inch-perfect pass beyond the last defender. Banoub's pace took him clear, but his fiercely driven shot cannoned back off the Lillington keeper. Fortunately substitute Nigel Hoyland was on hand to control the rebound, keep his composure, and skilfully side-foot home past four defenders on the line.

Hoyland had been introduced at the expense of Abbott on the hour, and the ageing striker had looked less than happy as he trudged from the field in sulky, Fowleresque fashion. However rumours of a bust-up with the Supremo were hastily dismissed at the post-match press conference. Claims that Abbott had refused to give Groom (who was running the line at the time after his own replacement) a cigarette shortly after being substituted were rubbished as "absurd mischief-making" by a club spokesperson. With this slightly less-than-convincing denial, it remains to be seen whether the striker will be 'rotated' onto the bench for next week's vital game against Kensington Stanley.

Logica's fourth came after a period of relatively sustained pressure (i.e. about thirty seconds) had forced a corner. Jon Clarke, who had impressed throughout with his intelligent passing, whipped in the ball with such pace that the flapping Lillington keeper palmed the ball straight to Banoub inside the six yard box. The striker missed his kick, but luckily the ever alert Lurch was on hand to poke the loose ball into the corner of the net. This was Marsh's first senior goal for the club, and capped a relatively impressive performance in the circumstances as well as balancing out his first half ownie.

Despite a much improved display in the second half by Logica, once sensed that Lillington had taken their foot off the pedal a bit. They seemed to be more interested in showing off to each other, although they still managed to add three further goals when the mood took them. Perhaps the best moment of the second period was a double goal-line clearance by Nich Fazel. When keeper Gill was beaten by a delicate chip, it was the Logica right-back who retreated to execute a brilliant overhead kick to clear from just under the bar. The ball went straight to a Lillington player who crossed straight back into the danger area. This time a point-blank header gave Gill no chance, but somehow Fazel executed an amazing Higuita-style scorpion kick to flick the goalbound shot over the bar. Marvellous stuff!

Whilst 10-4 is a fairly embarrassing margin of defeat, we should not under-estimate the achievement of scoring four goals against such high quality opponents. Lillington should walk away with the Second Division title this season, as this reporter for one has never come up against such impressive opponents at this level of competition. They gave the impression of being semi-pro players who turned out on a Sunday for a bit of a laugh, and it was not just that they had a couple of brilliant players - all twelve of them were of the same standard.

In short, Logica should put this one down to experience, and no blame can be attached after losing to such a good side. We would hope that none of the other teams in our division are of similar ability, in which case everyone else will be battling for second place. To put things into perspective, we were a little worried to learn that Lillington had only won their previous week's match by a slim margin. Could Parsons Green be of a comparable standard? Well, probably not quite. Idle Supremo-to-Supremo touchline chatter revealed that only eight Lillington players had bothered to turn up for this game, and they still managed to run out 5-4 winners! Indeed, it would seem that the only thing that could possibly threaten Lillington's Championship chances would be extreme boredom engendered by an absence of challenging competition.