Game 30

The home team couldn't raise a B team and withdrew from the competition earlier in the week, so with the facility booked, referee (me) booked and one team still willing to play, this game, which was to be the third in the new U21 Floodlit League, suddenly became a "non-competitive" fixture. The opposition was the A team of the "missing" club and that meant we had a replay of the opening fixture of the competition.

They used to be called "Friendlies" but teams often forgot they were supposed to just be work-outs and took the games too seriously. So that's why they are classed as "non-competitive" these days. I had already been paid for this fixture as Shutts had sent me a cheque to cover last week's game, when he hadn't been able to raid the petty cash before setting off. It was the first time I had ever been paid so far in advance for a game. Usually I'm lucky to get paid 10 minutes before kick off, never mind 5 days!

I arrived early and warmed up as usual. I got the teams together for the jewellery and footwear check before completing what has become known as the "Champion's League" handshake. Some of the players like it, some are just plain embarrassed. We kicked off a little late but no-one seemed to mind.

I had little to do in the early exchanges and it was obvious that both teams had remembered the relative strengths and weaknesses of their opponents. The first goal, to the away team had been scored on 13 minutes and added to 15 minutes later. In between these times a player tried what can only be described as a kung fu style challenge on an opponent. Fortunately the "victim" was merely brushed by the miniature Bruce Lee and could have continued his attack on goal had I not stopped play to issue a caution to the offender.

He accepted his caution in good spirit and went away with a smile which was good to see. Little did I know that things were going to get silly over petty things shortly afterwards. A throw in taken 15 yards from where the ball went out of play (I shouted at the player 3 times to move him up the line) saw a turnover and as I asked for the ball to be handed over to their opponents, the captain of the away team kicked the ball 30 yards in the opposite direction ... caution 2.

I had to have words with the coach of the home team as he became more and more vocal in his complaints about my decisions. I had to speak to him twice more before the end of the game and honestly thought about a misconduct report, but held back.

So reaching half time at 2-0 to the away team, the game was still balanced until the away team scored a third after 5 minutes of the second half. When the home team scored after 10 minutes of the second half, I hoped we might see the game become more balanced with both sides attacking but the away team pushed on and scored two more goals before the end.

The home team also picked up a couple of cautions. For the first I blew my whistle for an offside decision but the offending player chased the ball down and challenged the goalkeeper, illegally, before falling to the ground and claiming his own free kick. The second was a player who offered his opinion just once too often on my decisions. His last one was about an incorrectly taken throw-in where he had one of his feet in the air when he released the ball.

Finally the third caution for the away team came very late in the game for a bad challenge. Overall a medium sized work-out as the the calories burned off at around 1460, max hr 94% and an average of 75%. Someone else gets to look after the game in this league next week and I get to go back to the track - deep joy!?