Some days you wonder whether football is really worth all the emotional distress that it causes. Take this Sunday, for example, and the mighty LFC twins. Liverpool dominate at Stamford Bridge only to concede a sloppy sucker punch just before half time ultimately resulting in the seemingly inevitable defeat to the Blue Billionaires, an offside second goal and Pepe's sloppy sucker pinch notwithstanding.

Earlier in the day, Logica had dragged themselves up by their bootlaces to recover from a woefully lethargic start that saw them fall behind early doors. Two second half goals from and seemed to have turned matters around, and with just fifteen minutes left, Logica were fully in control and just needed a third goal to avoid any late nerves. But, as in their previous game against Broadway, a nightmare last fifteen minutes saw them contrive to concede a veritable hatful, and allow Spectra to rise from the dead and somehow run out 5-2 winners.

The only thing that keeps you going in such situations is knowing that there is always someone worse off than yourself. Neither of these devastating defeats can have been quite as painful as losing to your fiercely hated local rivals courtesy of a Gary Doherty own goal two minutes from time. Imagine supporting both Norwich and Logica?!

Another week off between games had only served to dull the match sharpness of the Logica players, who started with all the liveliness of a knackered sloth on sedatives. Even then, a moderate Spectra outfit caused few problems, and Logica were even able to muster the energy to create a couple of presentable chances, as doze-meister was twice sent clear. The first of these breaks yielded only a corner, as the slovenly striker was quickly caught by a chasing defender, and the second was wasted as flicked the ball over the advancing keeper only to see his heavy touch send the ball cavorting over the bye-line.

Spectra began to exploit Logica's slow acclimatisation, and carved out some decent chances of their own. produced a brave block at the feet of a Spectra striker, unaware of the belated offside whistle that would arrive any day now. He bettered this with a quite breath-taking full-length dive to tip a header around the post that had seemed a certain goal to all in the Stade. But even was left helpless when a seemingly innocuous break down Spectra's right produced a cross that found an unmarked forward heading home at the back stick [0-1].

At least this goal served as a collective wake-up call, and the home players finally got their act together. The rest of the half they largely spent carving out and then wasting good chances to equalise, underlining perhaps the team's biggest problem. Unlike the Houdini season two years ago, when chances came at monthly intervals, Logica's attacking verve now yields bagfuls of chances in each match, only for the majority of them to be spurned. Whilst at Christmas Logica had practically the best defensive record in the division despite conceding eight on the opening Sunday, their goalscoring record remains by far the worst in the division, with even the bottom-by-some-distance Invictus having scored nearly twice as many as and co.

Culprit-in-Chief again led by example, surprisingly out-muscling his marker to break clear, only to see the squared pull-back fail to pick out either of two well-paced team-mates. The same player missed another great chance after some fine battling work from , who laid the ball to him on the edge of the box with the keeper back-pedalling desperately. But 's hasty toe-poke screwed wide.

fared little better. Twice Logica sprung a poor offside trap only for the Sheffielder to fire straight at the keeper despite having time to pick his spot. Just before the interval, Logica spurned perhaps their best chance of all. Another dangerous corner from , returning to the side after a spell out as Radio Five Live's Cartoon Correspondent, saw a header blocked on the line. The ball fell to eight yards out, but his ferocious shot flew too high.

Remarkably, Logica continued in the ascendancy after the restart, and indeed managed to break the profligacy curse inside two minutes. A foul just inside the visitors' half enabled to deliver a pin-point dead-ball into the box. , doing a scarcely plausible impression of a big number nine, out-jumped two defenders to loop a perfect header over the despairing keeper's dive [1-1].

The equaliser added conviction to Logica's improved play, and now they were fully in command, passing the ball out with confidence and style. Moments of lethargy still threatened, and had to pull off another brilliant full-length save to preserve parity.

But stand-in Supremette appeared to have pulled off a tactical master-stroke when he brought on at left-midfield, and moved up front. It was not long before a long, hoofed skier from had the Spectra rearguard in panic mode. Perhaps distracted by desperate appeals for offside, the visiting keeper advanced to claim what should have been a comfortable bouncing ball. He misjudged it completely, however, and as it bounced over his head, the anticipating reacted quickest to slide the ball home [2-1].

The bonus of taking the lead seemed to outweigh any psychological side-effects that the substitution may have triggered. The withdrawn player, , immediately got changed and left the stadium, with colleagues uncertain as to the state of the striker's mind. "He was babbling incomprehensively," admitted one colleague who did not want to be named. Even this morning, rigorous interrogation of by a large pack of slavering press hounds only served to fuel the speculation, with the Logica gaffer confessing that he had had no contact with the AWOL player in the last 24 hours.

Logica were now in control, and pushed for a third goal that surely would have settled the outcome. Proactively trying to avoid the late-match tiredness of the previous game, moved to hold his advantage, replacing left-back - playing his first match for three months - with .

This attempt to reinforce Logica's position of dominance, unfortunately had the reverse effect, as two new left-field players struggled to pick up the speed of the game. Spectra took full advantage and every attack seemed to come down their right flank. With fifteen minutes left, 's rolled pass to his full-back put under pressure. Instead of hoofing for the safety of touch, the substitute tried to dribble out of trouble. Quickly dispossessed, Spectra's skilful right-winger had a clear run, and his accurate low cross was easily tucked home by an unmarked forward [2-2].

Logica were still reeling from this shock when they conceded a needless foul on half-way straight from the restart. The dead-ball was punted long and cleared everyone, falling to Spectra's left-winger way out wide, who produced a quite unstoppable volley from an acute angle that took everyone by surprise [2-3]. Urgent enquiries of the referee revealed Logica had just fourteen minutes to come from behind once again.

They gave it a good go, and just lacked someone in the right place at the right time on a couple of occasions. skilfully foiled the offside trap by dribbling clear from half-way, but was just foiled by a last-ditch block as he pulled the trigger. The resulting corner was fired in low by and elaborately dummied at the near post by . The panicking Spectra defenders attempts to clear only resulted in a series of pin-ball deflections, but nobody from Logica could capitalise. Similar confusion reigned when headed back across goal, but again Logica could not convert as the visitors struggled to clear.

As Logica grew more desperate, Spectra took advantage and two further breaks down the right added further goals in the dying minutes [2-5]. In between these painful blows, was controversially denied a goal, when he burst clear from his own half to round the keeper and slot home only for the referee to belatedly and erroneously blow up for offside.

The Logica players were stunned into silence at the final whistle, and trooped melancholically from the field, struggling to understand how they had thrown three points away. To rub salt into the wound, Spectra, who had trailed Logica by 11 points at Christmas, jumped above them by virtue of this victory – their fourth in a row. 's charges need to extend their game to the full 90 minutes, and start converting their periods of dominance into goals and points, or they are in danger of being sucked into a relegation dog-fight that seemed beyond them a month ago.

Action photos from this match may appear here shortly if we can face re-living the nightmare in colour.