It's not often that I get the opportunity to act as a replacement for a PGMO official, so when Martin Atkinson was unable to accept the invitation to referee a game being played to raise funds for a local children's charity, I was very pleased to take the game on.
I asked Craig and James to be my assistants. Craig is a product of the County Referee Development programme and I've watched his progress with some interest over the last few years, since I first saw him referee at an international youth tournament about 4 years ago. James operates on my old Supply league as an Assistant as well as refereeing in our local Sunday league.
The game was between one of our local Contributory League sides and a team made up of players from the local Sunday league. It was a little one sided after the initial 20 minute feeling out period. The Contrib side moved the ball with pace and the Sunday league side huffed and puffed.
The home side had the advantage of a few substitutes whereas the away side lacked numbers. I had agreed that they could make as many substitutes as they liked but once they were off, they were off. The home side used 6 substitutes and with their already superior fitness levels, they ran out worthy winners at 9-0.
Craig showed that he still has some development to do as I had a number of slightly suspect offside signals. I supported all but the first which came when a player chipped the ball forward and ran on to it himself. The players, to their credit, accepted the decisions with good grace but let me know that the flags weren't always correct.
James on the other hand was very, very impressive. His signals were sharp, he timed his signals to go with mine and his movement up and down the line was good. He was complaining afterwards of a sore hamstring. This game came the night after he was on the line for a FA Youth Cup game and I think he worked hard that night as well. I had been offered the game but there was a chance that I might have to referee the winners in the next round, so it was decided that it wasn't a good idea.
In our game, I had little in the way of dissent and misconduct to deal with. I had just the one caution for a reaction to a strong challenge. I also had to run between two players to stop them starting a fight. One of the players shrugged me off thinking I as his opponent and I nearly took an elbow for my troubles. My own fault and I couldn't have complained, but I thought it was preventative refereeing (and I've seen Mark Clattenburg and Howard Webb do it, so why shouldn't I???) at it's best.
Early in the second half I got a sharp pain in my ankle which slowed me down for the remainder of the half but it was still a good run-out. I was more concerned that Tom was in the stands and thought I might not be ok for our Supply League game on Saturday. I will be fine ... pain killers are a godsend for niggles like this one.
Calories 1561, max hr 93%, average 73%
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