Two weeks is too long

On the day of my last post I was supporting my local District FA by acting as member in charge at a local cup semi final.

I had hoped it would be a chance to just watch the football, instead of scribbling notes, trying to watch 22 players and 3 officials and all with the prospect of spending a couple of hours writing up reports. Unfortunately I had to organise people to man the car park, the turnstiles, the supervision of the bar area and act as overdressed ballboy (suit and tie no less!). Even so it was an entertaining game with the underdogs scoring from a 1st minute penalty before the favourites powered back and eventually won 2-1. The referee had a good game and both teams were happy with him.

Next I was on to another Supply League assessment and I was watching my friend Paul. He again had a good game but I still had some things he needed to work on. What made this game special was the thank you e-mail I received from Paul after sending out my reports. It was very complimentary and made me feel better about the stresses and strains of assessing.

I then found myself in my kit and wandering out into the technical area at one of our Sunday league finals. A quietish night as 4th official saw the underdogs win 4-1 at a stroll as the favourites blew themselves out. The full report is here but doesn't mention me virtually picking up a substitute who wanted to join in a mini confrontation nor my admiration for a long serving referee who used his experience to help him know when to cover ground and when he could take his time.

My weekend was consumed by celebrating my daughter's 18th birthday. Saturday was a shopping fest and finished with a large Chinese meal. We didn't stay for the end of the night but the resident DJ was a recently trained refereeing colleague ... hey Frosty!

This week started quietly with a trip back over to Bradford to watch another Supply League game. I enjoyed the game and the referee's performance but not so one of his assistants. I found it difficult to carefully word his report but finished it off and sent it. I was also supposed to be assessing a promotion candidate last night but this was scuppered by a work meeting in Birmingham which over ran by 2 1/2 hours. Instead I went to the District FA meeting where the finishing touches were added to the first of our finals.

That game took place tonight and it was a cracking final. The favourites went 2-0 by half time but the other team, who were playing at their home ground, pulled them back so that it was 2-2 with 30 minutes left. The favourites took the lead again with 8 minutes to play, but were almost immediately pegged back by a third equaliser.

The winning goal came 5 minutes from time and it was a disappointing result for the home team as the favourites ran out 4-3 winners - a good night!