Note to self, when the phone rings at 5pm and it's the outgoing Referee's Appointment Secretary, then just say no. Tonight I made the mistake of saying yes and found myself looking at the finalists from next Sunday's Cup Final against the home team from last Sunday's game. It was also the first team of a club vs their reserves side from last season who left en masse and set up a new club - no bad blood there then???
The game was only 4 minutes old when the home side scored the first goal at a canter. The away side were arguing among themselves and seemed like they were going to end up on a hiding. Then on 12 minutes, the home goalkeeper fluffed a clearance giving the away team's top scorer an open goal from 15 yards - he didn't miss.
The home team's centre half asked permission to leave the field twice in the first half. On the second occasion he explained that his contact lens had torn in his eye and he needed to remove it. His centre forward also went off to change his boots. It had the desired effect as he created chance after chance and finished with a couple of goals and set up another 3 for his striking partner.
The score was 3-1 at half time and finished at 7-1 at full time. The second half was totally unremarkable except for my spotting the away goalkeeper dropping the ball after he had it under full control, then stepping forward and picking the ball up again ... indirect free kick to the attack. I also awarded a penalty to the home team for an obvious trip.
So I finished the game with less than 1000 calories burned, had little trouble with the game and went home thinking I had lost my FA coin (couldn't find it before the game). Turned out it was in one of my pairs of shorts from the weekend. I think by this time tomorrow I'll have participated in 14 games in 27 days - too many!
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