Game 53

This game nearly never happened which would have been a real shame as today I witnessed two teams battling fairly for survival in the first division of my Supply League (the highest division without Assistant referees).

The home team had a few problems last week resulting in their game being postponed and this week's was also in danger until the decision to give the "go ahead" was made yesterday morning. I set off later than planned but made good time and arrived around 55 minutes before kick off. I collected both team sheets, changed and got out for my warm-up.

Regular readers will know that I've been managing a hamstring injury for a few weeks ago when I rather too enthusiastically joined in with Chuckle Elder's sprint session a few Fridays ago. Speaking of Chuckle Elder he now to be known as Sandy. The reason is simple ... On Thursday the District FA had their first semi final for the Saturday Cup and Johnno was on the line for Chewitt. All through the game some good natured banter was heading Johnno's way from Sandy and a few other mates. Close to the end of the game, Johnno flicked his heels up and threw a lump of dirt straight into Sandy's mouth. The touchline, having been sanded to help with drainage, contained a high proportion of SAND, hence the name Sandy. It made more sense in the pub after today's games... honestly!

Back to today's game and the weather conditions were changeable with a strong wind blowing the clouds around, covering the ground in dark shadows then bright sunshine moments later. It made life difficult for both defences as long balls played from the goalkeepers hands were moving around in the swirling air currents and quite a few times, headers were misjudged giving rise to unexpected chances to score.

I think the away team could have played all day and not scored a goal, though not through a lack of trying. They hit the cross bar and goal post twice in each half and had a couple of shots scrambled away, as well as the home goalkeeper making a number of brave saves. The home team also had their chances but the away goalkeeper, while seemingly not on the same wavelength as his defenders made a few good saves and a few ugly ones himself.

As with games like this one, with the ball moving around a lot AND the ground being hard and bobbly, there seemed to a lot of shouts for handball. The early ones were waved away but players seemed to think they could get away with a few deliberate ones and then one misjudged a bounce and controlled the ball with his upper arm ... while standing just outside the goal area his team were defending - kick from the penalty mark awarded!!! The kicker moved up smoothly, the goalkeeper dived to his right, the kicker played the ball to the goalkeeper's left but got under the ball and lifted it cleanly over the goal.

This all happened in the early part of the second half and I'm getting ahead of myself again. In the first half one of the home team's midfielders had been putting himself around the field, giving me a little lip and generally making a nuisance of himself. For the majority of the time, we had some good banter but we fell out just before half time when he went in late on an opponent and collected the game's first caution.

Just after the penalty kick a reckless challenge saw a second home player collect a caution. There was a disagreement over a challenge (which I had already penalised) right in front of what passes for a technical area for the home team. One of the substitutes ran on to the field and firmly pushed an opponent away from his team mate and as a result got the game's third caution.

I stopped trying to play advantage (none of them had come off anyway and I'd had to bring play back) and tightened up on my game control to make sure the game didn't get away from me. A trip (on himself) by a home defender saw him sprawling in front of an away attacker, who then fell over him and demanded his own kick from the penalty mark - which was dismissed. I also picked up on one of the away centre halves wearing a bracelet made of wooden beads. It certainly hadn't been there during the pre-match inspection but he assured me it had been hidden by a sleeve - he went for a walk to the touchline to "adjust his equipment".

It was at this point I realised that I had stopped being concerned about the residual tweaks from my hamstring injury and I was running freely around the field. I was even outpacing many of the players with less than 10 minutes to go. It also meant my positioning was good and when a ball was played across the away team's penalty area I was well placed to dismiss calls of handball. I noted the second away centre half wearing a bracelet and I had told this one he had to remove it before the game, but again I hadn't seen it until this point,

Another trip to the touchline to "adjust his equipment" meant his team didn't deal with a long throw in very well and in fact played it out for a second, even longer throw-in. It bounced and bobbled across the penalty area and the home team captain smashed the ball goalwards but it hit the goalkeeper and spun up into the air, dropping towards the goal line. Another attacker chased the ball but the spin saw it twist and turn into the back of the goal.

The teams played out the last 7-8 minutes and it finished at 1-0. A valuable 3 points for the home team in their survival battle. Calories 1376, average hr 78% and (a lesson not to referee while carrying a virus) max hr 110%