Coaching!

I had a little trip up to Thorp Arch today to support three Referees and four Assistants as they looked after Leeds United vs Huddersfield Town U10, U12 and U14 games.

I was supposed to be helped by another referee but he received a re-arranged Minor FA game at short notice so I was flying solo. It was not a good start to the day. On Friday I had a new clutch fitted to my car and when the mechanic handed me the keys he queried how my car had passed the MoT test a few days before with a cracked windscreen (windshield).

I told him it was just a chip but when I examined it, I saw that it had grown to a 3 inch crack. So on Saturday morning before heading to my game in Chapeltown, Leeds I called at an Autoglass display and they told me it couldn't be repaired, the windscreen needed replacing and we arranged that for next week. The car was however still safe to drive providing the crack didn't worsen.

On leaving the house on Sunday morning I found the crack had grown again and was now nearly 6 inches long. There was no way I was going to race up the M1/A1 link with a cracked windscreen. So I swapped to my wife's car only to find she was out of fuel and the first filling station I stopped at, was out of diesel. On to the next filling station, filled up, now running 10 minutes later then planned I noticed my satnav had turned itself off - disaster! I had only been to Thorp Arch, home of Leeds United's training facilities once before and that was as a passenger (in every respect).

So on leaving the A1 it was time for a frantic phone call home for directions and having missed my turning, a 10 minute detour around the countryside of West Yorkshire. I arrived 20 minutes late and found I was an Assistant short. He too, it turned out, had also had travelling problems with missed bus connections et al. When he arrived, I rushed through a pre-match for both sets of match officials and allowed the referee from the U10 game to sit in as well for the experience.

The match officials all got themselves out for a warm-up which was led well by the referee for the U14 game. Then the games got under way and I spent the first session watching the U12 game before moving to the U14 for the second session. I then split my time between the two games for the third session. I'm pleased to say that the Referees and Assistants gave a good account of themselves but each got some areas for development and strengths highlighted in a personalised report which I will e-mail to them tomorrow. Copies also go the SR, the Referee's Development Offcier, based at the County FA.

The best part of the day was meeting Gary McAllister the new Leeds United manager, who was something of a hero for me when he played for Leeds back in the 1990s. Oh and the U12s won 2-0, one of the goals was a 20 yard screamer and the U14s won 4-0. I didn't see any of their goals as I was on the other game at the time. The weather was good too, so I got a bit of colour in my cheeks!