Moan, Moan, Grumble, Shout, Moan

A weekend full of refereeing has come to a close. Yesterday's match was highly uneventful, with a 6-0 demolition from the top of the league and there was very little incident.

This morning's match, however, there was plenty of it. The nerves that had been apparent in the last few matches I have officiated were not there this morning, suggesting that I have gotten used to refereeing again. The few matches I have officiated have passed without incident, which is good, but that run was always going to come to an end sooner or later. It turns out it was sooner.

I am still trying to get up to 100% efficiency with this refereeing lark. I always knew that this mornings match was going to be, "interesting". 1st vs 3rd, with only a meer point seperating them basically spells 'title decider'. It really didn't help that I knew most of one team and even a couple of players from the other team who I have played cricket against occasionally. A tough 90 minutes were in store, and I knew it. However, I was there and there was no way I was going to back out of this one. So I went on the offensive.

Before the kick off, I gave a much more confident pep talk to the skippers, indicating I was going to take no prisoners when it came to shouting/complaining/moaning/, (or a mixture of the 3), but it turned out they didn't hear a single word of what I had said. Within the 1st minute, Goldington pumped the ball forward, towards their striker who was walking BACKWARDS from an offside position with his hands in the air. For those of you who know the offside rule, you'll know he is as inactive as Mubarak's presidency and, despite the linesman, (the defending teams manager, no less), flagging furiously, I let play continue. Needless to say, someone else run through and slotted the ball into the back of the net. Shit.

I know I was completely right. 100%, but despite being told just a minute before that I wasn't going to accept any 'in your face shouting', the skipper and a couple of others run at me screaming their heads off. I'm used to this by now. Even without refereeing for 9 months, I've had enough people do that to me to know to just stay calm in the literal face of adversity and explain my decision. Only when he carries on, do you issue a yellow card. And that's what happened. I was in for a tough morning.

So, 1 minute down, 89 left. For the first 10 minutes after that, tackles flew in and words were exchanged but I'm glad with how I dealt with it. The voice of advice from coaches and assessors whirled round my head. "Stamp it out and they'll soon concentrate on playing football". I tried to blow up for anything and everything that I could credibally get away with and it seemed to calm down after a while. A couple of reckless tackles flew in, deserving a yellow and a couple more yellows were dished out for persistently moaning or complaining about decisions. Both of these teams were full of 18 and 19 year olds, so you can imagine the complaining. I have developed just enough backbone down the years though to develop selective hearing and get on with it. At half-time it was 4-1 to GNG, who had gone on the rampage for the last 20 minutes of the half and netted 4 in reply to the 1st minute "controversial" goal.

At half-time, I evaluated my own performance. I was pleased with how I dealt with the 1st minute incident and the following 10 minutes where it all went a bit crazy. Otherwise, bar a couple of minor decisions, I thought I had done OK. However, when I looked up, I realised I was about to receive a 2nd opinion. An assessor, nicknamed Flanners, was assessing on the other pitch and seeing as it was half-time over there aswell, he had come over to give me a couple of pointers. His advice was fantastic. There had been a small confrontation at the end of the 1st half, where 2 players squared up, but there was nothing malicious there. I had called them both over and given them a ticking off, but Flanners said to really sell that this sort of thing wasn't acceptable. He noticed I had become a little rushed by the players, a true statement, and told me to stay as calm as possible and make the game go at the pace I wanted it to.

With his words ringing in my ears, the 2nd half began well enough. I gave another yellow, in which I took my time over, for a reckless tackle. It stayed 4-1, until Goldington got 2 goals back in quick succession to make it 4-3, and a certain interesting finish. It wasn't what I really needed, as I was concentrating as hard as I could on doing everything right and keeping control of the game. When it turned 4-3 though, rather predictably, things started to heat up again and this was the stage of the game where I really needed to keep my head on the game. As is usual with me though, my concentration slipped and I missed a couple of rash tackles sparking furious words from players and coaches alike. The game was settled though when the GNG left-winger produced a magical overhead kick, similar to Rooney's of yesterday, to make it 5-3. A highly-contested affair then. But how had I done?

Flanners came over again, and congratulated me on playing a fantastic advantage that he had spotted, (despite having to watch his game of course!), but pulled me up on not going back to caution the player, which it was a caution. He wasn't critical, but helpful. A good guy, Flanners is. Looking back on the game after the emotion of it all had calmed down, I think I did alright. It was a difficult game to referee, and seeing that this was only my 3rd middle in 9 months, I did well to not let it spill over into uncontrollable territory. Overall then, I am pleased with how it panned out, despite the grumbles of the players.

But that is football. Players are never happy.

In other news, I have a week of nothing unless you count cricket nets on Wednesday, Refereeing, "El Classico" on Thursday, (you will definitely get a match report on that if it goes ahead!), training on Friday before another weekend of football. You know what? I don't know why I complain so much!

And also, this rather boring and uninteresting post, (if you don't like football anyway), is my 300th! Long may it continue.