The Referee

While I have been out injured ive been assessing and its been an eye opening experience.   I now have a new appreciation of how difficult it must be to for the assessors each week.  Both assessments I have done have taken nearly 3 hours each to write and ive racked my mind on the wording, summary, strength’s & overall mark.  

 I have so far assessed a Level 7 & Level 6 and it was an interesting experience.   In the case of the assessment for the Level 7, by the time half time came I had 3 pages of notes on the game and his performance.  However in the 2nd half I had less than a page.  The reason for this is that I found the things I was making notes off were consistent area’s that were all linked into together for a development point.   However the positives were flowing and were standing out more in the 2nd half.   

Something that become very apparent to me is that I can see the benefit of the Mentor scheme the FA have tried to implement.  There are small things that if you put in an assessment would seem picky and make the assessment to long.  However face to face with the Referee one on one you would be able to help and thought provoke more.

I am out again tomorrow watching a Level 7 Referee and its great way to help keep my thinking as a Referee, although i must stop refereeing them in my head!