Logica unveiled their new AC Milan style away strip against high-flying Arema at the Trinity Road Stadium last Sunday, but failed to eradicate some of the more mundane trends that have kept alive an interest in the relegation battle all season. Despite some efficient finishing (Logica took three of only five chances offered them, one being disallowed), basic defensive errors gave Arema three goals and two points they didn’t deserve.

The main talking point after the game concerned the Arema captain, who - as in the first game before Christmas - carried off a near perfect impersonation of a psychopath. Within minutes of the game starting, Psycho decided that Logica’s Martin Johnson was a potential threat to Arema’s championship aspirations, and quickly moved into Souness mode. Each time these two went up for a header, there was an elbow in Johnson’s head, or a dig in his back. Johnson, as one would expect, stood his ground and carried on with his game. A few more encounters involving good hard tackles from Johnson continued to aggravate Psycho as it gradually dawned on him that Johnson was not going to be put out of his stride by threats of violence. Egged on by non-stop mouthing from Arema’s club-captain and sweeper, a new tactic was tried. After another skirmish in the centre circle, Psycho turned and spat in Johnson’s face. The referee tried to defuse the resultant contretemps, but bottled out of punishing this despicable act. Instead he booked both players.

A couple of badly timed tackles by Johnson (still wearing only his solitary ‘lucky’ contact lens) did nothing to take the heat out of the situation, and the referee talked to both players on a couple of further occasions. At half time, the obvious thing to do was to substitute Johnson before he was sent off, but this would have been to give in to Arema’s provocation and give Psycho his moral victory. So Johnson continued, and did himself proud. Despite immense incitement, he kept on playing football, showed himself to be above the constant barrage of pathetic intimidation, and played a not-insignificant role in bringing Logica back into the game.

The half time cooling off period was vital for Logica as they had begun to become distracted by the Johnson-Psycho side show. They had not really threatened to score in the first half, producing only two long shots from Abbott, plus, just before the interval, a great volley on the turn from Johnson which went just wide (a proverbial two fingers to Psycho). Defending was the main occupation as Logica struggled, not for the first time, to keep possession of the ball for longer than about five seconds. The defence played well again, restricting Arema to few chances, but typically a single slip had allowed the home side to score the only goal of the half. A long aimless ball was punted forward. Dick and Millar were on different wave-lengths, and the call to step up for offside caught Dick on the back foot. The lone Arema striker thus galloped forward, unmarked and on-side, and beat the helpless Wildsmith with a very smart finish.

Despite the interval refocusing, an almost perfect replica gave Arema a 2-0 lead within minutes of the restart. Logica broke down an Arema attack but in trying to move forward they lost possession almost immediately. A quick hoof over the top again found Logica’s back line square, and the Arema forward again had a clear run on goal which he culminated with an accurate cross-shot from 15 yards which beat Wildsmith and just crept inside the far post.

Another recurring theme with the Logica players this season is only starting to play when they are a couple of goals down. And so it was again. Millar mis-directed a pass but the victimised Johnson rescued the ball and sent an accurate pass out to Abbott on the left wing. Abbott raced forward, beat one defender by cutting back inside, and even had time to glance up and assess the penalty area situation. After considering the options, he plumped for Spence, and this proved a good decision. An inviting cross was comprehensively converted by Spence with his head, and Logica were back in the hunt.

Now it seemed that only devine intervention could stop Logica taking the game by the scruff of the neck. In fact, it turned out that the referee could as well. First Spence skilfully volleyed home a looping headed pass. As the ball was played, Spence was marked goal-side by a defender and thus the linesman correctly left his flag at his side. For some reason though, the referee blew his whistle and awarded a free kick to Arema, but was not particularly lucid when asked for an explanation. Shortly afterwards, Logica were (ironically) awarded a free kick in the centre circle. Jobling collected the ball but then decided to leave the kick for Masting. He dropped the ball to the ground and kicked the ball to where the offence had occurred. As Masting walked towards this spot, an Arema player ran to the ball and started dribbling upfield whilst yelling back to the referee that Logica had taken the kick. The referee, who didn’t appear to have seen what had happened, this time refused to intervene. A startled Logica could only stand and watch as Arema went straight up the other end and scored. Mass protestations proved fruitless and Logica were 3-1 down.

Still the boys who looked like Milan did not give up. After a period of intense pressure, Arema just managed to scramble the ball away. But substitute Woolhouse sprinted off in pursuit., and just kept the ball in play. Turning sharply, he beat one man before putting in a low and dangerous centre. Incredibly it was Millar, darting in at the near post, who was first to the ball, and he executed a deft Lee Sharpe style flick which the keeper got a hand to but couldn’t keep out.

With only a few minutes remaining, Logica strove in desperation for an equaliser. Arema’s response was to kick the ball out of play, and preferably into the Trinity Road from where it would take a good few minutes to retrieve. Despite this negative tactic, Logica still had time to carve out one last opportunity. A long throw was flicked on, and although a defender was first to get his head to the ball, it dropped at Woolhouse’s feet. An awkward volley was executed almost perfectly, but was unfortunately directed straight at the keeper.

Shortly afterwards, the final whistle was greeted by a dejected and disbelieving Logica team. It only remained for everyone’s favourite psychopath to chase half way down the pitch and threaten to "have" Johnson. A sad performance which he followed up by coming and banging on Logica’s changing room door in an attempt to scare us all.