So it was a tentative return to the green stuff assisting Craig in the middle and Chris on the other line.
We had the bottom club against the club who have been bottom for much of the season and with the heavy rain experienced in the local area for the last two weeks, we knew the field would be soft and cut up easily. The warm up was gentle and I was nervous about pushing myself too hard as I was still having twinges in the Achilles damaged in Game 22. Even so, I felt comfortable, if a little hyped up, after the warm up.
The game kicked off at 3 pm and by 20 minutes past I had managed to tweak my soleus tendon in my left leg. It was nothing too serious, certainly not as bad as when I did it 2 years ago on the line in the FA Youth Cup at Farsley Celtic. I was "crabbing" as much as I could as the assessor was my mentor David who picked me up on being out of line with the second rearmost defender a few weeks ago.
The home team took a lead in the first half, taking advantage of a disastrous goalkeeping error and then they fell asleep letting the away side equalise almost immediately. Just before half time, the home team added a second and a few minutes after half time, they added a third. So with the score at 3-1 they seemed to have stamped their authority on the game and as the temperature dropped, settled into a deeper and deeper defending position, letting the away team push on.
The away team took advantage of a bad goalkeeping error and as the ball was lobbed into the goal from around 25 yards, the tempo of the game began to grind up through the gears. The home team continued to strike on the counter attack and re-established their 2 goal cushion following a close "not offside" call right in front of me. So at 4-2 with less than 20 minutes to go, you might expect the team bottom of the league to collapse or at least just play out the game.
Well this team obviously hadn't read the script and pushed hard for a third goal, which they got and then an equaliser with less than 2 minutes left on the clock. Neither team wanted to concede another goal and we finished at 4-4. Craig had cautioned three players, one for dissent and two for USB. All were justified and the player who got his card for dissent was lucky not to pick up an earlier caution for leaving the away goalkeeper in a crumpled heap after he challenged him late for the ball.
So at 4-4, I suspect the away team will have been happier, twice having been behind by two clear goals. Despite this, if you had offered both teams a point before kick off I think they might just have taken it bearing in mind their relative league positions.
Now the big thing for me, having come back to the green stuff after a 5 week break through injury was how did my fitness hold up. Well to be honest not too well. As mentioned I tweaked the tendon in my left leg and my Achilles certainly wasn't happy in the second half, but I'll cope. I burned 1877 calories (which is a lot!!!), average hr 84% and a max of 98%. I intend to train the week after next before deciding whether I take on my next line on December 12.
I think I might have to retire from the line and concentrate solely on refereeing. This will certainly hinder any chances of promotion next season but it might just prolong my career past the 10 year mark.
I have a lot of other things I can do in the game and I certainly don't want to end up refereeing from the centre circle in the lowest division of the lowest league just so I can stay in the game. I'm not instructing on next week's course but I am ear-marked for the course in February (Happy Valentine's Day my dear wife x) and hopefully I'll get picked up for May's course.
After that I'll re-register for next season but probably not operate as an Assistant on a Supply League so I can assess at that level (if accepted). I'm not looking forward to it as my friends have often said, you're retired a long, long time!
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