County Cup
On Saturday it was County Cup weekend and so I had an interesting tie between Heather St Johns and Thurmaston. Despite both teams being in the same county and at the same level on the pyramid they both play in different leagues. I hadn’t officiated Heather before but recognised a few players that turned out for them. I was a bit concerned at the start of the game that the wind may ruin it as it was quite strong. However this wasn’t really the case. The game was end to end to start with and eventually settled down.
There wasn’t to much to Referee during the 1st half, the biggest problem I had really was a bit of moaning from a Thurmaston midfielder who was appealing for every bit of contact. However the players involved were happy to get on with the game and I was happy to let it flow if the players were. One of the interesting things through out the game was a midfield battle between two experienced players. Both players were looking to get an edge over one another and it was interesting to see, it was competitive and within the laws.
One problem as always happens in Cup games is you get moans for time wasting. The goalkeeper was taking his time with Goal Kicks but was within the laws and was making a effort (although not that much) of an effort to get the ball back. These are awkward ones to manage, you could go straight for the yellow but its a harsh one I feel as its not significant and is a cheap yellow as they are running etc. I tend to find speaking to the player and adding the time on works well, however you need to be sure that once youve spoken your next contact would be a caution. Its a bit similar to the players holding the ball in the corner. I can understand why teams do it, but it infuriates most Referee’s as its a potential problem as you can see the Defender going right through the back of the player.
Heather pushing for an equaliser were getting frustrated over some offside decisions going against them. However everyone appeared correct to me and there case was pretty weak when they appealed them. With 10 minutes to go though Heather pulled on back to make extra time a strong possibility. However one of the midfielders took his celebration a bit to far as he came up to me punching the air shouting “Come on, Come on”. At first I thought is he just being overexcited or is this dissent. However when he turned and said “Referee, Lino, Come On!”. I called him back and said celebrate yes, but not like that and cautioned him for dissent.
As it happened a few minutes later Heather scored a 2nd and what proved to be a winner. Again he got a bit over excited and I told the closest player to me to calm him down before I do it. He did this and sorted the issue.
As it happened this was the winning goal, Thurmaston did have a penalty appeal. However I ddint have a clear view of the incident, and unfortunately my assistant in that half wouldn’t have had a view of it either as he would have had to many players to look through.
