The first of my three games this weekend saw me take a trip to the venue where an old match report saw this blog go offline for a little while back in 2008.
No such problems today and the welcome could not have been any warmer from the home team. Everything was going well until I checked with the away team why they weren't getting changed. It seems their kit man had gotten lost in transit and they were only able to get changed 10 minutes before kick off.
The pre-match jewellery and footwear check passed without any problems but a player wearing jewellery soon caused me an issue and he got a caution. A club official tried to intervene and his subsequent conduct has been reported. It was good to be able to concentrate on the football for the next 60 minutes or so apart from a nasty wrist injury to one of the away team. The ball had flipped his hand back and his hand appeared to be still vibrating from the impact. After a few minutes on the touchline, he was substituted.
I then had an incident late in the second half, which in hindsight could have been avoided but I sold it quite well. The away goalkeeper had collected the ball and as with every other time he had it in his hands, he looked like he was going to kick it high and long. I have taken to running sideways in this situation until the goalkeeper plays the ball and then sprinting (or what passes for it) to get into the drop zone. On this occasion however I was very close to the goalkeeper and thought I would never make it to the drop zone if I employed my usual method, so I turned and started my run, so turning my back on the main group of players.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw a movement and the ball bounced at head height and was spinning away. I knew something had happened, so I blew a long hard blast on the whistle and shouted "Defence free kick". Now a few players queried this and one said I didn't know why I had given it. In truth I had done it on gut instinct without actually seeing it, not something I recommend that anyone does often. I called in the player who made the comment and spoke to him and his captain. He was the player who had already been cautioned and didn't take much convincing to see the error of his ways!
As I ran upfield the offending player asked why he couldn't do what he did. Before I could say anything he said he was sure that he could play the ball as the goalkeeper bounced it and things fell into place ... the home captain had kicked the ball away as the goalkeeper was bouncing it - I had been right to award the free kick!
The away team had scored a few minutes before this and that turned out to be the only goal of the game. I had no further cautions and no other incidents to manage. One down, two to go. Calories 1662, average hr 76% max 93%
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