Goals
Saturday was the first competitive game of this new season for me. You find with the Senior League that it can take a few games to figure out the teams as invariably all the players swap around and you never know who is going to turn up where.
This proved to be a case in point on Saturday with Thurnby. I refereed them a few times last season and I think there was maybe 3 players from last seasons side. I didn’t recognise any of the other faces and so wasn’t really sure what to expect.
I had a feeling it was going to be one of those days when having checked the nets at arriving at the ground and found they were fine. They were checked before kick off and some of the peg’s had come out and we had a couple of minute delay while that was sorted.
Which I am sure I will be picked up on by Mr Assessor, although I hope not given he didn’t talk about it in his 1 minute debrief of which 30 seconds were about a game he did last week! It was a surprise to see him before the game as I heard nothing from him in the week building up to the game as we are not meant to.
Anyway back to the game. Thurnby were playing Hinckley Downes, who are Hinckley United Reserves. They are one of two teams in the county’s that have scraped their reserve side and turned them into a “new club” to try and get more competitive football but cut traveling costs by playing within the county. So there was really an element of the unexpected here.
Hinckley ran into a 3-0 lead after less than 15 minutes and the game was as a good as over before it even started. When after 25 minutes it got to 4, I was thinking in a minute we are going to get a frustrated challenge but it didnt come and going in 6-0 at half time there had been nothing really to referee. Players were getting frustrated and with the greasy pitch some challenges were sliding and carrying on a bit however with the Skill of the Hinckley lads they were happily riding them passing the ball and giving great chances to play advantages.
In the 2nd half Thurnby came out and made more of a game of it. They were competing more for the ball and trying to get at least something out of the game. With the score at 9-1 I had to speak to a couple of players who were being a bit to competitive. I was aware that it was frustration coming out and not aggression but needed to keep it in check otherwise it could get out of hand. I had a chat with a Thurnby player who had slid in to win the ball but never really had any control of the challenge. He made no contact with the player and there was never any real risk of a foul but it was clumsy. Two minutes later Im stood at the half way line for a goal kick and the player is in a 9 on 5 with their defender. Loses the header and take a little frustrated kick out at the defender. Nothing violent purely frustration. So thats my first caution of the season and the only one of the game. Thurnby do snatch a late 2nd to make the game 9-2.
Not the hardest game Im going to have this season, but it had its own challenges and it wasnt a bad way to start the season. I will be interested to see what the assessment says though as mentioned previously I got no real feedback after the game. Other than he was happy that despite the score I still knew where my card was and was willing to use it.
Next game is Tuesday at Rugby.
