Match Report by .

Hastily rearranged at the eleventh hour, Logica started this fixture in the spring sunshine with only ten men after 's efforts to get a bare XI went unrewarded. The Supremi were quietly confident that Logica could hold their own, even with a depleted team and no less than 10 first team regulars missing.

The first half got underway with the Alliance first out of the blocks. Logica's defence was performing superbly to keep the score at 0-0 with playing makeshift centre back in the absence of , etc.

When the home side did manage to unlock the Logica defence, denied a SW striker with a direct one-on-one save, and the away side started to frustrate the Alliance. It looked liked it was not going to be SW's day when a scramble on the edge of the area involving , and an SW man left the ball bouncing around Logica's penalty area; an Alliance striker smashed a pin–point effort past the helpless dive of , but somehow kept the score even with an amazing diving header to clear off of the line – unbelievable!

Logica were finding opportunities few and far between, but almost took a shock lead midway through the first half. A good cross from found , but after turning the keeper, last week's Man of the Match had his shot cleared off the line. That was to be Logica's best chance of the whole game.

Logica had held out bravely for 35 minutes before an Alliance striker ghosted in between Logica's defenders to divert the ball past [0-1]. at the other end had a header from a corner simply saved by the keeper, but there was a killer blow right on half time when SW doubled their lead. The defence were tiring, and failed to close down Alliance's nippy midfielder as he drove into the penalty area for a simple tap in [0-2].

Logica had done themselves proud before the interval, but the 10 men began to tire and the second half unfortunately proved a different story. SW came out with all guns blazing, and scored two quick goals after the restart [0-4]. made a good save tipping round the post, before two more goals were conceded in quick succession [0-6]. The Alliance then hit the post and bar before a mix-up between and led to goal number seven. There was no blame for the next one, which came via a superb and unstoppable 20-yard shot [0-8]. A ninth Alliance goal hit Logica hard – thank god the ref blew the final whistle!

In all seriousness – Logica did not deserve to lose by such a heavy margin. ran himself ragged in a one-man central midfield and the defence defended heroically, especially in the first half. The Supremi couldn't have asked for any more effort from the team – but once the third and fourth goals went in straight after the break, tiredness was suddenly apparent and heads dropped causing the large reverse.

Division Two Update

All Spectra's remaining games have now been awarded to their opponents, including Logica, who were scheduled to play the fading Spectra next Sunday. This is a small piece of good news. It was touch and go whether Spectra would have their record expunged or their remaining fixtures awarded to the opposition. However the latter outcome is to Logica's benefit, since we actually beat Spectra and both Maxilla and Welham lost to them; so we would have more to lose by Spectra's record being expunged.

Unfortunately, Maxilla routed Welham 6-1 at the same time as Logica were losing to the Alliance. But fortunately our match award against Spectra keeps us a point above them. Our vastly inferior goal difference keeps us below Spectra despite same number of points, and we are also a point behind Welham. Maxilla have their last two games scheduled against Parklife and Shoots for the next two Sundays. Parklife lost 8-0 to Croydon (who are Champions in all but mathematical certainty) so Maxilla are likely to fancy their chances against them. Shoots will hopefully beat Maxilla since they are still chasing promotion. Like us, Welham's remaining fixture against Old Sergeant is unscheduled.

The likelihood is thus that unless we are able to arrange our remaining fixture against West London Select, and take at least a point, we will finish in the bottom two, and bottom if Maxilla beat Parklife. West London Select have games scheduled for 27 April and 11 May, but not 04 May, so there is an outside chance we can squeeze our lifeline match in there. We'll keep you posted.

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The Editor