On such beautiful spring days, ‘tis inevitable that the minds of young Englishmen will turn to thoughts of, well, cricket actually. Despite being the first day of the cricket season, Logica football club still had five fixtures to fulfil, although it is unlikely now that these will all be played. However, Logica got themselves into cricketing mood with a late order collapse of England proportions.

There has been much concern in the camp recently of an increasing relegation threat. Two factors are at play here. One is the bad winter weather experienced, which makes completion of the fixtures unlikely. With the league employing a priority system to decide which matches get played, Logica have found themselves without a match for four weeks. Meanwhile, our fellow strugglers have been playing regularly, and quite frequently are playing double-headers which lavish four points on the winners. One victory in a double-header has been known to whisk a team out of relegation trouble, and put them in with a shout of promotion, so tight is the situation in the Senior Amateur Reserve Division. The second factor is that, when we do play, we play crap and lose. This is perhaps the more telling factor in explaining our relegation plight.

This was once more the crux of Clarke’s pre-match verbal rocket. Brentford Town were two points below us (admittedly due to not appearing for many of their fixtures) but with two games in hand. Victory was essential if we hoped to finish above them at the end of the season. Spurred on by this eloquent appraisal of our desperate situation, and buoyed by the knowledge that Clarkey was wearing his lucky odd socks (one mauve, one purple - which had ensured a 1-0 win for Fulham against Exeter the previous day), Logica started the game as if lions let loose on Christians.

Pressure in the first couple of minutes realised a couple of long shots on goal. One of them, a thunderous half-volley from Sidaway, struck Spence full in the face before being scrambled away to relative safety. When the dazed Scot had finally been revived, Masting looped in a dangerous corner which saw Gildea challenge an uncertain Brentford keeper. The nervous number one dropped the cross, but before Gildea could pounce for his first senior goal for the club, the keeper made a wild swipe at the ball only to claw it into his own goal (1-0).

The Lions of Logica were now rampant, creating chance after chance. First Spence made an excellent run down the right, and rather than shoot, squared an inviting pass for the better positioned Abbott. The talented Scot may have been better advised to take the more selfish option, as Abbott’s crisp strike struck a post when he really should have scored. Abbott was again the offender a minute later. Persistent harrying by Spence forced a Town defender into a weak back pass; Abbott pounced, rounded the keeper and rolled the ball goalwards. But alas the centre-half had recovered and just got back to the ball before it crossed the line. Further pressure yielded no more than a series of corners until a great passing move culminated in Masting whipping a low shot through a crowd of players, but which also tragically struck a post and bounced away.

After such an orgy of squanderance, even Mystic Meg could have gained two points from David Coleman by predicting "Err, what happened next?" The manner in which Brentford took the lead was a little more surprising. A hopeful cross into Logica’s penalty area appointed Hatton as this week’s salmon. Not quite able to reach the cross, the ball ricocheted off the libero’s pony-tail and looped cruelly over the despairing dive of Wildsmith (1-1). Straight from the kick-off Logica contrived to lose possession, and a quick pass forward caught the back line still mourning their ill luck over the equaliser. The Brentford forward was clear and produced a lesson in finishing as he volleyed into the corner of the goal for a 2-1 lead.

Logica maintained their confidence however, and the remainder of the half was equally balanced. Logica’s best chance unfortunately fell to the immensely profligate Abbott. More excellent work by Toman saw him reach the bye-line, and rather than hoik in a hopeful cross, he spotted Abbott’s run and pulled the ball back. Abbott turned and shot in one, but the ball went so high from just seven yards that even Geoff Thomas might have been embarrassed by such a poor finish.

The second half was not so good. Despite a half time team-talk which implored much of the same, and which placed a heavy emphasis on the need to maintain possession, Logica saw little of the ball after the break. Penned back in their own half for much of the time, even when they did break out, possession was quickly surrendered by an inaccurate or a wildly optimistic pass. At least for twenty minutes, the resultant need to defend was competently executed.

Logica’s cause was not helped when Masting was the victim of a couple of ill-timed tackles, and eventually had to hobble off. He had been the primary purveyor of intelligent and accurate passing in the first half, and with him went much of Logica’s creativity. Still, this did give Lambert the chance to make his first appearance since late February, and what an entrance he made. Toman had once more been exceptional on the left side. Now he burst forward on one of the home team’s rare attacks. Reaching the edge of the penalty area, he spotted Abbott to his right. The latter controlled a sharp ball, and instantly flicked on. Who was waiting at the far post? None other than Lambert, whose second touch of the game was a blistering volley into the roof of the net (2-2).

The fine balance of the game was maintained for a while as both teams cancelled each other out. At this point, it seemed the result would provide an indication of just how far the players had progressed since the opening day of the season when Brentford annihilated them 7-1. Old habits die hard though, and just as Brentford had scored a hatful towards the end of that first encounter, and just as Morganite had come back from 5-1 down in the latter stages of the preceding game, so once more did Logica fail to last the pace. The turning point was a Brentford corner. Poor marking resulted in a free header, and from the resulting scramble it was a forward who reacted quickest to poke the ball over the line (2-3). In true deja-vu stylee, Brentford added a fourth almost immediately as a quick through-ball found Logica looking quizzically at the linesman whilst the pacey striker lobbed accurately home (2-4).

Deflation was instant. Suddenly the exertions of maintaining parity against a quality Brentford team after three Sunday mornings in bed took its toll. The remaining ten minutes saw Brentford score two further goals from a succession of late corners to give the final scoreline a very unjust appearance (2-6). The stunned silence in the dressing room afterwards was almost deafening. Once more Logica had played really well for the most part but failed to convert the performance into two points, or even one. Unlike the Morganite game where defensive lapses were the main culprit, today it was the forwards’ spurning of chances which was at the heart of the problem. To have taken a couple of those many early chances would have given Logica the cushion and inspiration needed to battle on to the end. But it was not to be. This may even turn out to be Logica’s final game of the season, and maybe Logica’s last game in the Senior Amateur Reserve Division. A bad finish in more ways than one.