Good start

I had hoped my first season in refereeing would test me to the limits and I knew I would have a busy season. I'd registered with the Mansfield Youth League to take as many matches as they could throw at me on Saturdays, whilst becoming the allocated referee for every home game of Hucknall Rangers, my Sunday side. Then, whenever they were away, I became available for a friend of mine's team, FC Headstocks.

Before the season got underway, I was given the chance to see how I would handle senior football and coming just a few days after officially qualifying as a referee, I took charge of FC Headstocks against a team called Pure. I was confident I could handle this level, a few years ago I would never have thought this possible but since spending a couple of seasons playing at this level, with a few of these games coming as captain, I'd developed a good voice and was eager to get started.

The game went really well, Headstocks winning 5-0 and I had relatively little to do. It was good to start with these as Dan, the manager of Headstocks who I knew from his own Hucknall days had given me a lot of encouragement and support and had briefed his players about not giving me too much of a hard time as I was knew to it. They were sound though which made it very easy. I know I'll enjoy taking charge of there matches this year and hope reffing for Hucknall will be just as good.