Game 9

A tricky journey, a challenging few minutes and a horrible phone call - all in a day's work for an Assistant Referee.

The journey involved picking up the other Assistant from a hotel 5 miles from my house, driving to a shopping complex, meeting the referee and travelling up the A1 to Boroughbridge, which is a nice little town in North Yorkshire, a la James Herriott :-) The return journey wasn't much better as I had some additional time pressures, I was shattered from a draining afternoon in the heat and THAT phone call.

The game was a dullish affair in the first half. The most excitement I got was when I realised I was running about ten yards inside the white line! I should explain that as an Assistant I take my distance from the edge of the penalty area and the left back as a measure of staying close to the touchline. At this venue however, the field is almost square and as such very wide so corrupting my usual reference points!

The second half fired into life with two goals from the away team, a flurry of cautions, with one player collecting two, so leaving the game. I also had a substitute who wasn't ready when the time for the player exchange arrived and as a result he left his team playing with 9 men for around 4 minutes until the next stoppage. The away coach went ballistic but the referee quickly moved in to quell his raging storm.

So on to the phone call, which came from my dad's wife. I took it on the way to the game and was told that my dad, who had an operation last week, had suddenly deteriorated and wasn't expected to last the weekend. I privately dedicated today's game to him before we kicked off. I managed to see him tonight and he looked very tired. Maybe it's time for him to rest? Life is pants sometimes but death is always worse :-(