See also the second match of this double header.

Just like the buses, there had been nothing for weeks and now two arrived at once. Matches that is. Not goals. Or victories. After a flying start, Logica seem to have spent the rest of the season slowly getting back up to speed only to endure another enforced lay-off at the behest of the quirky fixture computer or a non-showing opponent. It is perhaps no surprise that their inconsistent form since October has pretty accurately matched the stop-start nature of both the fixture list and a bus.

It was thus no surprise that Logica struggled to get out of neutral and into first gear against league leaders Southfield Rovers who had only the previous week played a testing double header against Prince of Wales. The fact that they had lost (2-3) for the first time in one of these games was likely to be of little help when balanced against four weeks inactivity. Rovers had also beaten the in-form PoW 4-2 in the other match.

If that wasn’t enough, our allocated referee for the morning had been snaffled for bigger fare in the form of a County cup tie, and Steve Lambert kindly agreed to step in so that the fixture could go ahead. Good experience for the trainee referee, but bad news for Logica who would surely have preferred the flying Lag to have donned red shirt rather than black.

Rovers took the initiative early doors and posed much of the early attacking threat. Two pacey and skilful strikers would ask some searching questions of Logica’s experienced rearguard all morning, and they were aided in their quest by their own back line who regularly pinged accurate long passes into their feet, enabling them to isolate and attack the Logica defenders. However, Southfields were aided mainly by the latter after fifteen minutes. The Logica back four stood in a line with their arms raised waiting for an offside decision that never came, and a Rovers forward was left with ample time to latch onto a lobbed pass and flick it over the exposed Booth in goal [0-1].

Logica worked hard to battle back into contention, and central midfield terrier James Buck led by example, harrying and chasing down his opponents with never-ending zeal, and passing the ball intelligently once he had regained it. His team mates were less frugal with possession, and the ball was too easily surrendered courtesy of unforced errors. Few real chances came Logica’s way in the first half, and their only move of note saw Reevaldo shooting wide from twenty yards.

So it was not exactly against the run of play when Rovers added a sublime second shortly before the interval. However it did require the help of a characteristic Lag sense of fair play. Some nifty footwork had already seen the Southfields forward dance out of an apparent cul-de-sac down by the right corner flag. But even this was eclipsed by the precise curling lob with the outside of the right foot that arced over Booth and just inside the angle of far post and bar. The ball actually hit the inside of the stanchion and rebounded back across the face of goal and over the bye-line as if it had hit the post, leading Booth into a dazed pirouette in its wake. Referee Lambert had his first difficult decision to make, but was saved by a certain Black Country Corinthian and keen fan of the fanny, who confirmed to the referee that the ball had indeed crossed the line in a display of honesty not seen since Robbie Fowler’s penalty denials down Highbury way many moons ago [0-2].

Logica were no more effective after the break and two more examples of Rovers’ lethal finishing quickly put the result of the first game beyond doubt [0-4]. There was little left for Logica but to salvage some hope ahead of the next game, but at least they managed to do that. Supremo Groom opted to shuffle his pack, and Hoyland replaced Banoub up front, whilst Brown enthusiastically removed his spectacles as he was called from the bench to replace Taylor.

Hoyzone’s impact was almost immediate as he was fed in the inside-left channel with a good early pass by Reevaldo. The speedy Yorkshireman turned his marker sharply as he cut inside before unleashing a powerful drive which was unfortunately too close to the Southfields keeper.

This first real threat on the Rovers goal seemed to inspire Logica, who pressed forward for the remainder of the game in search of consolation. Increasingly confident build-up play promised much, but poor quality final passes, crosses or finishing scuppered an end result. Pressure did yield a fair number of corners and free-kicks around the box, but despite some imaginative dead ball variety (which included a disguised short ball straight to a defender, and a scooped lollipop of a free-kick straight onto the defensive wall), the Rovers keeper was not seriously stretched again, and Logica were grateful for the first final whistle at which point the slate was wiped clean.