After nearly three decades it all finally came to a rather ignominious end. Twenty nine is a pretty impressive age for a Sunday morning football team, but even those who still cared passionately about Logica Football Club were unable ultimately to halt the final slide into history. It had been a slow and painful death if truth be told, and even the wake would prove to be one final nail in a long-since buried coffin.
Perhaps someone should really have quietly escorted the club on a trip to one of those controversial Swiss clinics some while ago. Certainly the signs of decrepitude and ailing health had been plain to see for a fair few years. It was as long ago as May 2007 when an Extraordinary General Meeting had been called to try and arrest the club's perceived malaise. had already gone well beyond the call of duty in totting up seven years at the helm, and the enthusiastic offer from and to take over the reins was enthusiastically accepted by one and all.
But the core problem could not be overcome. An absence of young, good quality, new players left the club unable to evolve and compete, with the corporate decision some time ago to stop taking on graduates not helping our cause. A club cannot survive indefinitely on mates, and indeed mates of mates, turning up every week. The new management duo's first season in charge had resulted in a continuation of the struggle for numbers and a final day relegation resulted, albeit narrowly on goal difference, and with a points tally which mockingly exceeded that of many previous seasons in which we had survived.
It is to their credit then, that those involved still harboured optimism for the new 2008-09 campaign. However, pre-season preparations were thrown into disarray when the management duo became a solo act, with fleeing to South America. As it turned out, heroic endeavours over the coming months, both in the sheepskin and between the sticks, would mark him down as one of the club's legends, although probably a mentally scarred one.
The heroics started early doors driving the club on against the odds. had to drive round to collect a previously 'unavailable' from his bed to make up a starting XI against Invictus on the opening day of the season. A 3-0 defeat did not bode well against a side which would go on to concede 73 goals, even more than Logica. could only stay for the first half, but put in an impressive shift at right back. This was a pre-cursor that would see the loyal club servant play with distinction in a variety of positions throughout the season, none of them centre-forward. Not only did the Boro man top the Appearance charts in this most difficult of campaigns, but it was clear to one and all that his consistently impressive and committed performances both in defence and midfield made him a runaway certainty for the club's Player of the Season Award.
Things got decidedly worse the following week when Logica fell 3-0 behind in the first ten minutes to an Eel Brook Rangers side starting with just nine men. Two quality goals from and restored a little pride, but couldn't avoid an ultimate 2-4 defeat.
Two more straight defeats followed against Battersea Dogs and Bragança. Ironically, given the club's ultimate demise due to falling numbers, there was an impressive debutante starting to make his mark with two goals against the Dogs. A young followed the seemingly long-forgotten script of contacting the football club within days of joining Logica to offer his services. He proved both committed and talented, and would finish second in both the appearance and goal-scoring charts. Another half dozen or so like , and the club would surely be blooming rather than buried.
There would be very few high points, or even medium points, in a miserable season, but one such came in Logica's fifth league match when they secured their first point of the season with a last minute equaliser in a dramatic 3-3 draw against Red Star Utd. It was again who should have taken the plaudits with two fine goals, but sneaked in to grab the headlines with that last minute equaliser from the penalty spot, not least because it was his 200th competitive domestic goal for Logica - a remarkable feat of longevity as much as clinical finishing.
What was hoped to be a turning point was short-lived. Logica were emphatically dumped out of the Big Ron Cup at the first hurdle, falling 4-0 to an admittedly better FC Barnesalona from the division above. A similar scoreline greeted Logica's return to League action, although similarly there was perhaps no shame in going down to the impressive and eventually promoted RBL Fulham on what was one of the coldest, wettest, and most miserable Sunday mornings in living memory.
But it was the run in to Christmas that really knocked the stuffing out of Logica. The most humiliating result in the club's long history saw them crash out of Little Ron to ten-man Division Five outfit Tooting Bec Rovers by 8 goals to 3. The following Sunday a much-anticipated relegation six-pointer saw the team capitulate limply to fellow strugglers Worcester Park Rangers, and a classic lob that rolled back the years was scant consolation in a 5-1 hammering at the Stade by high-flying Bec Utd.
Things were getting desperate now, and attempts were made to try and rope in a few old talents to help the cause. so nearly provided a miracle as Logica were extremely unlucky to go down 2-1 to Crown on the first Sunday of 2009. had already equalised on a skating rink of a pitch, when he had a second strike chalked off by a controversial offside decision. Instead of three points, Logica were left with none when a late Crown winner cruelly twisted the knife of fate. There was better news the following week when Eel Brook Rangers failed to appear and Logica were awarded the three points, but a second heavy defeat against Bec Utd the following week meant that any relief was short-lived.
There now followed one of those bizarre Sportsmans League interludes where Logica didn't play a game for two full months. By the time the team did take to the field again, the spring sunshine had led many of the squad to find more fulfilling Sunday morning pastimes. Most disheartening was the loss of inspirational leader , whose time was by now fully occupied by the need to organise a quite different domestic match. His decision was offset by the return of from his travels, but no sooner had the other half of the dynamic duo dusted off his boots, then he was sentenced to a project in Newcastle from whence leadership and administration were nigh on impossible.
These clouds did have a silver lining, and agreed to return to the helm for what remained of the season. Could the young Norfolker produce one his managerial rabbits and save Logica from a seemingly inevitable second consecutive relegation? Well he managed one rare feat on his first game back in charge by assembling a full 14-man squad, albeit bolstered by a heavy contingent of the afore-mentioned mates. But a ring-rusty Logica still went down to their second 8-3 defeat of the season against the Eagles.
The following Sunday proved decisive, as Logica plumbed new depths in a season of ever increasing lows. Logica only mustered a starting XI by kick-off time with the aid of yet more mates of mates of mates. And a 5-0 reverse against Battersea Dogs was rendered even more costly when a harmless episode of handbags quickly escalated into a red card for Logica's , and a bizarre abandonment by a referee who completely lost the plot in what was anyway the dying minutes of a match whose outcome had long since been decided.
Even that small but loyal band of club servants who had thus far managed to keep the faith, now had to admit that the writing was writ large on the wall. Instead of clutching at the ever dwindling straw of survival, efforts were now switched to ensuring that the club was afforded a dignified, nay celebratory, send-off. At this point, Logica had just one remaining fixture scheduled against Invictus in the first week of April. It was decided that this should be Logica's final competitive match, and a plan was hatched to assemble many legends of yore to bid the club a fond farewell.
That so many legends answered the call is a testament to the affection in which Logica Football Club has been held by so many throughout those 29 years, tangible evidence indeed that this is not just any old Sunday morning football team. The line-up that day was a Logica Football Club fantasy team: , , , , , , , , , , , , and ; a squad that boasted, four ex-Supremi, many, many hundreds of goals, bags of (admittedly somewhat rusty) league and cup winner's medals, and of course no goalkeeper.
No matter that the average age was well into the forties, the Logica legends more than held their own in a goalless first half in which they created the better chances. When Invictus took the lead courtesy of a disputed free-kick midway through the second period, it seemed that the fairy-tale script would not be followed after all. But with just minutes left of the club's existence, and (for it was he) combined to free in the box. With just the keeper between him and that elusive 100th recorded goal for Logica, the Scotsman unselfishly squared to the unmarked , who finished calmly.
The ageing Legends had thus doubled the team's on-field points tally for the season in a single morning, but more importantly had rounded off the club's long history on a note of both pride and dignity. It was a day when the old men revelled in playing the Logica way one last time, and I'm sure the odd nostalgic tear was shed in the pub afterwards.
And that really is where the story should have finished. Unfortunately a raft of late-season rearrangements by the Sportsmans League manadarins coupled with the financial necessity brought about by the threat of hefty fines, forced the Supreme in to trying to fulfil a number of further late season fixtures. The first of these mustered just nine players and an humiliating 13-0 drubbing at the hands of Crown, that unfortunately would now end up in the record books as the result of Logica's final 'competitive' match. A second saw just six Logica men assemble at the Riverside Lands stadium for a fixture against Eagles that thus had to be forfeited. Enough was enough, and finally pulled the plug and conceded all our remaining fixtures at no little financial cost in terms of those fines.
Should there have been any doubts as to the wisdom of this decision, the indefatigable was nevertheless moved to try and organise a club Wake the following September with a friendly three-team tournament involving his local pub side, the Tilberg Regents. Despite being organised months in advance, just four stalwarts turned up for this final farewell to Logica Football Club: , , and . Whilst admittedly these famous four epitomised the many generations of commitment and passion to LFC down the years, it was clear that the final whistle had been blown, and there was to be no extra time.
The final 2008-09 league table made grim reading, with 60% of our final points tally coming from a match award back in January. Just thirteen league goals, and sixteen in total, were clear evidence of a miserable season, with the 43 year old, two ton, once again finishing as the club's Top Goalscorer with the paltry total of six. Outside of guest cameos, just four regular squad players found the net, and two of these ( and ) bagged just one apiece. The Goals-Against column did not look much healthier: despite the heroics of , et al, the team still conceded 75 goals in 16 matches (although two other teams in Division Two somehow conceded more than our league tally of 63).
All in all, it had been nine months of pretty much undiluted suffering that for the most part is best forgotten. But that last hurrah by the Legends against Invictus in April is a match that will certainly live long and fondly in the memories of those that were there, along side many other thrills, spills, trophies, miraculous relegation escapes and mud-soaked exploits down the years. So a big thank you to all the 259 players who have graced the Logica shirt since records began, and for those too old or simply emotionally unable to play for another club, we wish you a happy retirement.
SEASON AT A GLANCE:
Most Appearances: (14 out of 16 games max)
Golden Boot: (6 goals in 10+1 games)
"If Selected..." Player of the Year:
"If Selected..." Goal of the Season: vs Eel Brook (h)
Football Writers' Player of the Year: and (3 MoMs each)
Best Scoreline: 3-3 v Red Star Utd (h)
Heaviest Defeat: 0-13 v Crown (h)
Number of Players used: 47
Goals Scored: 16 goals in 16 games (average 1.00 per game)
Goals Conceded: 75 goals in 16 games (average 4.69 per game)
Clean Sheets: Zero in 23 games (average: never)