It was the first of an imminent trilogy of matches against Racing Club Santos, and our opponents drew first blood. A predictable plot found Logica struggling to learn their lines in the first half. But with Jon Clarke taking the lead after the interval, a dramatic improvement in our performance caused a twist or two in the tale, before a bolt from the blue decided the outcome. Logica will certainly be hoping for a different story in episodes two and three.

For the first quarter of an hour, Santos took both the initiative and the game to Logica. Despite surrendering the lion's share of possession, the Supremo's visionary 4-1-1 formation enabled the team to maintain a good solid shape, and the home side were unable to convert their domination into a single chance worthy of the name. In fact, it was Logica who could have scored first as Fazel was played clear, but the chance was lost as the Logica striker failed to hold on to the ball.

Gradually Logica realised that they were perhaps showing their opponents too much respect and set about applying a bit more pressure. Despite some more controlled build-up play in the middle of the park, they failed to penetrate the Santos back line, mainly due to the hopeful nature of the pass forward into the danger-area. Long aimless punts were meat and drink to the tall Santos back-line, and in particular the pace of Mercer Field on the right flank was not being fully exploited.

Just when Logica seemed to have regained parity in terms of possession, their opponents took the lead out of the blue. There appeared to be little danger as Santos moved steadily into the opposing half, especially with a full compliment of Logica defenders in attendance. But as the ball was moved tentatively across field, the Santos left-winger managed to engineer himself a smidgen of space twenty yards out. He unleashed a lethal low left foot shot that was so accurately targeted just inside the far post that Fleming in goal had no chance [0-1].

The Football Gods seemed to be conspiring once again when left-back Gareth Byrne had to leave the field with a reoccurrence of an old thigh injury. However, his replacement Mike Marsh was on the ball from the off. Regularly executing some perfectly timed tackles, and always showing the composure to play a simple pass to feet, Marsh turned in one of his best performances yet for the club, and successfully masked the loss of Byrne early doors.

Logica reacted positively to the goal and put a little more pressure on their opponents. A number of promising positions delivered dangerous balls into the box, but unfortunately these always seemed to fall to a defender rather than an attacker. Worse followed though, when just after the half-hour mark, Santos added a second goal which was again somewhat against the run of play. A lofted ball to the far post seemed to be covered with both Hatton Minor and Field covering a solitary attacker. But a mis-timed clearing header from the midfielder fell straight to the feet of the Santos man, who made no mistake from ten yards even though Fleming got the faintest of touches on the shot. [0-2].

Once more the visitors kept their heads up and produced their best two moves of the half. First some elaborate noncery from Reevaldo on the bye-line turned his man inside out, but Fazel was unable to convert the pull-back. After months, nay years, of nagging, the Supremo had succumbed to the Walsall Wizard's continual demands to play in the hole. After a slow start as the lad regained his hole bearings, Reevaldo was now starting to shine. The best move of the half saw him receive a sharp pass from Clarke, advance, and in turn feed Field on the right after dismissing the option to shoot himself. Reevaldo continued his run into the box and was unlucky when Field's return pass was just cut out by a defender.

The interval found the Logica players bemoaning their luck at being behind, and there seemed genuine belief that they could turn the deficit around. The second half however began in scrappy fashion, and the Supremo was forced to come down from his seat in the Directors Box (where he had at least been able to keep in constant touch with his second-in-command Jez Brown via mobile phone) to take a more hands-on management role from the touchline. Some swift strategic reassessment resulted in substitute Paul Banoub being ordered to warm up. But before the change could be made, Logica struck back with a superbly engineered goal. Reevaldo collected a loose ball on the left and advanced with purpose. As he cut inside a defender, Jon Clarke timed a superb diagonal run behind the last man. The hole merchant was all eyes, and rolled the ball perfectly into the Scotsman's path. The keeper advanced, but Clarke kept his cool and poked a precise shot into the far corner [1-2].

Despite this unexpected change in fortune, the Supremo went through with his tactical switch. Banoub was brought off the bench, Reevaldo was extricated from his hole to a more conventional left-sided role, with Harry Gill the unfortunate victim in the pursuit of an equaliser. Despite donning the sheepskin rather than the shirts and shorts, Groom could well have claimed an assist when the Teessider so nearly scored with his very first touch. Clarke whipped in a dangerous corner and the substitute found himself unmarked six yards out. Clearly the chance had come too soon, even for a GPM speedster like Banoub, and his header was directed too high.

On such small margins of error can matches turn. Banoub's head was still firmly in his hands when Santos scored from their very next attack. For the third time the home side surprised Logica with a goal out of nothing. A loose ball bounced free twenty five yards out. A Santos midfielder cushioned the ball on his thigh before blasting an inch perfect volley over the startled Fleming and just under the bar [1-3].

Logica tried gamely to get back into the match, but to no avail. The blistering pace of Mercer Field was the visitor's main threat. On a number of occasions the wing-man burned past two or three defenders at a time but his cross or pull-back failed to find a colleague. A quick one-two with Reevaldo nearly set the player up for a chance of his own, but the ball just ran away from Field at the last moment. Logica's final chance came when a Jeff Hatton cross squirted through the pack to Field at the back stick, but his first touch was a little too hard and the opportunity had gone the same way as the three points.

The team will now be looking to next week's clash with lowly South West Eighteen as a chance to get back on the winning trail. Thereafter they face Santos twice more in consecutive weeks before the winter break, first in the return league game and then in the long-awaited second round Cup clash. So by Christmas we'll probably be very familiar with this team, but the Supremo will already know enough about them from this first game. They are clearly are a capable and well-organised outfit, but, as Logica's second half display demonstrated, they are far from unbeatable.