The Referee

Last night I had a local derby in the Beacon Bitter League Cup.  It didn’t occur to me until I drove past the away teams ground that there was less than a mile between the two teams. Saffron Dynamo & Blaby are pretty much on the same road!

The first potential problem of the night was going to be the Weather.  There was water laying on the pitch on the half way line and although it never became a real problem it also never went away and at the end of the night it was lying in a few other area’s.  If we had been kicking off at 9pm, we wouldn’t have!

I explained to both Captains at the coin toss that the pitch is clearly wet and slippy.  Yes you will slide a distance and challenges will look great, but the same laws apply and its up to you guys to adjust and think about your challenges.

After about 25 minutes and having spoken to a couple of players about a couple of challenges, I had need to issue the first caution.   It wasnt a particularly bad challenge however in the context of match control although I was trying to manage the tackles with the torrential rain the players werent and so I had to try and quash it.  

Between this caution and the next caution, Blaby scored to take a 1-0 lead.   The 2nd caution of the night was to a Safron player who caught his opponent late by the dugouts.  I had spoken to him after 15 minutes so he had been warned already.   

Both teams were getting on with the game despite the constant rain.  I had this dread before the game that it would ruin the game and both teams would moan a lot, however this didnt turn out to be the case.

Then in the last minute of the half I had need to caution a Blaby player who caught a defender around the half way line late.   So going in at half time I had 3 cautions all for tackles.

At half time I decided to rewrite the match card as it was drenched. The rain had eased up during the half time interval though and I was hoping that this would help the pitch and ease the cautions.  

This though didnt turn out to be the case.   After about 10 minutes of the 2nd half I had to caution a Blaby player for a late challenge from behind.   I had spoken to him earlier and so he hadnt really learnt.     Another 10 minutes later and I had to caution another player from Safron for a reckless challenge.  Despite these cautions the game was being played in a good spirit.  No one was arguing about the cautions and just getting on with them which was a nice change.

With 15 minutes to go I had to caution another Safron player and made a right cockup.  When I caution the number 8 earlier in the game from Blaby I wrote it on the wrong side of the pad, I spotted this and corrected it at the time.  However still had a mark on the pad.   WHen I looked at my pad cautioning the Safron 8 I saw the mark and showed him a 2nd yellow and a Red when it was his 1st!!   

Then in the last minute there was another caution for a late challenge by a Blaby player.

So in the end the game finished 1-0 with the cup holders going out and I ended up with 7 cautions all for late challenges and no one moaned.  Take away the 7 challenges and the game was played in a good spirit.

I was assessed and will be interested to read the assessment’s.  He seemed happy and praised my advantages and the team work between “our team”.   He didnt really mention anything to negative other than the caution/send off mistake which I would have been surprised if he hadn’t.