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Logica 1-0 Invictus
12 March 2006

Logica finally claimed their first victory of the season at Fortress Stade with a workmanlike display against bottom club Invictus. Grinding out 1-0 wins whilst not at one's best is a habit usually associated with aspiring Champions, and the title is not yet a mathematical impossibility. But whilst Groom's grafters were severely hampered by a highly erratic and malleable refereeing performance, they could ultimately be extremely grateful for some woeful finishing by the division's bottom side.

The fact that this match in mid-March was the first time Logica had avoided defeat at home in the League suggests that visiting teams are perhaps not quite as intimidated as we would hope by the intense atmosphere and bowling green surfaces of the Stade. Contrasting this to our away form, where we have claimed all of our other six league wins, suggests that if we did not constantly aspire to playing the beautiful game as God intended, the heavily rutted contours of somewhere like Wandsworth Common might be better suited to our purposes.

A lethargic start to this match could perhaps be explained by an emphatic 5-0 victory over the same opponents last Sunday inducing the dreaded C-word: "complacency". Unlike seven days ago, however, Logica struggled playing into the wind, and failed to create a single chance of note in the first half. Invictus, with a noticeable number of personnel changes, grew in confidence as the game progressed, and perhaps sensed only their second win of the season.

But despite the first forty-five minutes being played almost entirely in the Logica half, there were few real scares for debutante Algerian international keeper Chicco, whose long-negotiated signing was finally sealed just minutes before the last orders bell in the Victoria signalled the transfer deadline. His first touch was excusably nervous: even the experience of being involved in the 1982 World Cup in Spain cannot have prepared him for the pressures of playing in front of the combined and all-seeing scrutiny of Grooms Junior and Senior. Fortunately, the spilled ball was eventually fired high and wide, and the glovework that followed was faultless.

Chicco soon showed his class, cutting through the air like a trapeze artist in a perfectly arced dive to pluck a rasping drive from the heavens at full stretch. Further, more mundane, saves followed, and even when a header from a corner appeared to have looped over the Logica keeper's reach, the ever alert Melville was well placed to head off the line. One could even forgive Chicco's optimistically short goal-kicks, executed one presumes in the naïve expectation that Logica might build patiently from the back like they do in proper football. Bless! Well before the interval, he had resorted to hoofing it long like all those that had kept before him.

At the interval, Gautam was forced into a Cinderellian exit, and 'Smiley' Rob Corbett was given the opportunity to make his domestic debut. Despite being a stylish Pup veteran of the international stage, Corbett quickly showed he was equally adept at slumming it on a Sunday morning. Adding bite, height and a sure touch in the middle of the park, he played a significant role in rousing Logica into a more competitive second half performance.

The home side finally began to construct some moves of note, but it was a more direct approach that yielded the all-important goal. Hatton Major leathered a free-kick from the edge of his own box which sailed on the wind beyond the back-tracking Invictus rearguard. Hoyzone's finely tuned footballing brain was one step ahead, and he it was who anticipated the opportunity, latching on to the bouncing ball to lethally caress it over the despairing dive of the advancing keeper [1-0]. In a match of relentless profligacy, here was a moment of sublime execution that deserved to claim the spoils.

Invictus responded by wasting a couple more presentable chances, but Logica were now giving as good as they got. Abbott spun onto a bouncing pass, and flicked the ball back over his marker's head to send himself clear. Never keen to play second fiddle when it comes to an elaborate finale, the elderly striker could not resist attempting to out-lob his striking partner, only to see his delicately looped flick land on the roof of the net.

By now, an acquiescent referee was beginning to exasperate both sides. Failing to penalise a first half infringement, he confessed cheerfully to not having been watching. As the game neared its climax, he increasingly began to belatedly change his decisions at the shout of a player, or more often the visiting linesman. As a half-cleared ball was knocked back into the mixer, a clearly onside Abbott nipped around his marker to head the descending ball first time over the keeper and just under the bar from the edge of the box. The referee appeared to have awarded the goal, until some frantic flagging from the far side persuaded him to reverse his decision and award a free-kick for offside.

Less significant changes of mind revolved around throw-ins and corners, but Logica were again denied a late second goal when a sweeping move found Abbott playing in the unmarked substitute Dickie McWilliam. The referee responded to instant and perhaps justified offside appeals by stating that the Logica forward was in-line, and it was only after the Hull merchant had gone on to clip a neat shot inside the right-hand post and wheel away in celebration that the relentless assistant once again induced a change of heart. One could not help be reminded of Jon Clarke's perfectly legitimately 'goal through the hole' that was ruled out by the perjury of an Invictus linesman.

Such repeat offending though had clearly incensed even the Football Gods. Twice in the last five minutes Invictus players found themselves in acres of space with the goal at their mercy. On the first occasion a brave lunge from Chicco may have had some off-putting effect as a sliced shot skimmed the cross-bar when a goal seemed certain. But the second Invictus forward had no such excuses, and a wild volley was screwed inexplicably wide as if the Gods themselves had made off with the ball. Logica may have felt that moral justice had been done, but, in purely footballing terms, Invictus will surely be wondering how they failed to win the game comfortably after the numerous chances that they had spurned.