I swapped voicemails and texts with the Appointments Secretary of my local Sunday League on Friday and found myself in charge of this morning's game on the ground closest to my home.
With the heavy rain experienced over the last couple of weeks I had asked all referees to get to their games early and conduct field of play inspections to ensure games were called on/off as early as possible. I arrived at my ground 45 minutes before kick off to find the changing rooms locked, neither team in sight and the feisty but lovable local council employee snarling at every one who even suggested their game was on.
I borrowed a ball and took a walk out out over my field (one of 5 at this venue). The ball was running well over the ground, bouncing as expected and I had nothing to say the game shouldn't be played. I went out 20 minutes later to do my warm up and had Umar turn up and take the mickey out of me. He had also called his game on and was getting ready as well.
Now it's been a long time since I had a game packed with such a variety of incidents and I certainly won't forget this one for a while. When I am instructing, at the end of each course, every candidate has to pass a written examination and I'm sure I experienced almost a dozen quirky situations in today's game that might have had some new referees scratching their heads. I certainly had to fire up a few brain cells that have lain unused for a long, long time.
So to the game ... the captain and goalkeeper of the away team was of less than average height but it didn't show in the opening 20 minutes as he repelled everything thrown at his goal and kept his team in the game. Unfortunately his team let him down and at an early corner, having warned a couple of players for scuffling before the ball was played, a defender decided to use his shoulder to push an attacker right in my line of sight.
I took up a new position at the taking of the kick from the mark. I had noted that the PGMO officials had lined up on the edge of the penalty are rather than in line with the ball, so I did the same. This nailed any encroachment immediately - result! The goalkeeper pulled off an amazing save but the home team soon exploited his lack of inches by firing a couple of high lobs towards his goal from distance (+30 yards at least) and they went 2-0 up after 26 minutes.
I then had a busy period of play. The first incident was the away goalkeeper picking up the ball when it had been deliberately kicked to him by a defender. He claimed that it had been in the act of tackling an opponent but to be honest, there was no one within 4 yards of the defender. When I awarded the indirect free kick, I got some protests, but none were serious. My next issue was the decision by one of the defenders to try and charge down the free kick and he picked up the first caution of the game.
The home team scored a third goal and were coasting. In between all this going on I had noted the away team calling for offside on every (and I mean EVERY) through ball. I told them with a loud shout that I wasn't going to give an offside just on their shout and they soon stopped. It seemed like a tactic they employed and when I spotted they were rotating making claims for others things as well, I had a firm word with an outfield player and the captain and strangely enough, the bogus claims stopped dead.
This didn't stop the players getting confused though and soon afterwards, two of the away team, challenging for the ball managed to knock each other to the ground, with one being severely winded. I made sure he was ok and play was restarted with a throw in to the home team. They were very sporting and threw the ball to the away team goalkeeper/captain.
The next incident really tested my patience. The ball was played in from the right and the home team's captain dived towards the ball. He obviously punched the ball into the goal and wheeled away celebrating. I blew my whistle and was reaching for my book to caution the offender when one of the most vociferous (and the player winded that I mentioned earlier) defenders ran into my face and demanded I send off the offender.
Now I didn't take kindly to this and I told him I was going to take action (against the attacker), but his spittle flecked face continued screaming at me before he ran off to the half way line. After I had cautioned the offending player and spoken to the away team captain about his player's behaviour, I called the screaming man back to me from his (hiding) place on the halfway line. I told him his actions were unacceptable and cautioned him as well.
The home team added a fourth goal on the stroke of half time to make it 4-0. The away team manager noted his team's two cautions and decided to play safe by replacing both players at half time. Early in the second half I ruled out a 5th goal for the home team because of offside. One of the home team's substitutes scored a goal on his debut and the away goalkeeper continued to perform miracles. Despite his efforts he conceded 3 goals in the second half to make it 7-0.
Personally I felt ok throughout the game and I took it as a measure of how things had gone when all three cautioned players took time out to speak at length with me about their offences. None challenged their cautions, just asked for an explanation which they accepted. I burned 1569 calories with a max hr of 94% and an average of 79%, so not too shabby. My next game is on a postage stamp of a field but it's also one which holds a lot of water, so I might have a day off on Saturday
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