Footnote

I was assisting a good friend and great referee on Sunday and we met up again tonight when I dropped in on a training course for new referees in which he was taking part.

He confirmed the paper work had been done from Sunday's game so the censorship wraps can be relaxed a little. I have to say I have never ever been subjected to such sustained and venomous abuse during a game. Even the time when a team organised groups of youths to chant "You fat bastard!" at me around three seasons ago was not as bad as this! I have often been bemused by the reactions of grown adults to a bloke carrying a whistle and looking after 2 groups of blokes kicking a spherical object around on a piece of grass. Crowd abuse always makes me smirk.

Apparently on Sunday the fans from the Liverpudlian team wanted to "shag you (who me???) and your girlfriend", "fuck me up so bad, I'd never walk again", thought I was "a fat wanker/tosser/shithead", wanted "to break your fucking legs" of the opposing team. In between times, they wanted to start a fight with two quietly spoken home fans (there was at least 7 away fans), drink more beer and abuse the opposition players for being better than their team at scoring goals.

So the referee has put in a report to the FA about their conduct and this was being supported by another report from the FA's representative, who just happened to be the Secretary of the County FA. I think the charges might stick!