New Start at Drezden

I took full advantage of my new position as Referee Secretary and scheduled me in for 3 games at Drezden Colts, doing the U9, U14 and U15 sides. I slightly miscalculated the lengths of the U9 and U14 games as when receiving the calls to arrange the games, I lined them up so they were one after the other with 5 minutes in between. However, my miscalculation meant that the U15 had to wait 10 minutes for me to finish with the U9 and I risked missing out on this.

I put myself down for 3 games each weekend as I wanted to do as many games as I could in my first promotion year. I enjoyed being out there, felt fit enough to referee for the majority of the day and also wanted to bring in that always helpful extra income, but that wasn't the main reason. I know with every game I take I will benefit and learn something new so the more the merrier. But I don't want this to come at the expense of any sides. I didn't want to be too tired to do the latter games and have a poor game, or upset teams by making them wait for my arrival etc.

I started today by doing the U14's side against Beaufort United, in a close game that swung both ways before the away side came out 4-2 winners. The U9's then beat Welbeck Welfare 4-0 before I took over from Pete Dean, who had started my U15's game as they risked losing the main pitch if they didn't kick off on time. Drezden won 2-1 in a closely fought game with rivals Glapwell Gladiators.

I had enjoyed my first outing of the season and had no issues whatsoever, no cards, no upsets, a good start. Long may it continue!

Big cup game

I was originally down for an easy under 11's tie in Southwell before heading to Sutton for a big cup game at Sutton Town's old ground. This would be my first fairly big game at a decent ground, stands and everything! The Under 11's game didn't go ahead for some reason or another but I got a call out of the blue to take their under 8's against Rainworth Rangers.

Working out the journey from Southwell to Sutton was key as I had less than 45 minutes to get there and prepared and I wasn't familiar with the route but hoped I would be ok.

There was an annoying wait for the opposition to turn up though and as time ticked away, I worried that I would now be late for my second game, but just as the deadline time I had set approached, Rainworth turned up. Despite being quite late, they still insisted in having a good 15 minutes to prepare first, which made it even more unlikely that I would get to Sutton on time. I insisted that half time be cut short and the game commenced. Whilst remaining fully neutral in every game, often subconsciously you select a team that you route for more than the other - although ensuring all decisions are fair - but it's nice when the team you have developed a soft spot for get the win. There are many reasons why you would route for one over the other, such as one being the underdog, or if one set of managers are particularly annoying or rude you hope they get their come-uppance. On this occasion, due to Rainworth's lateness and abruptness in demanding time at the start, I'd hoped Southwell would put one over them!

I didn't have to wait long for them to be down as Southwell appeared much stronger than Rainworth and comfortably led 6-0 at the break. Still, despite my concern for the time both teams had the full half time allowance so my worries increased further. Southwell made it 7 shortly after the break and I began to look out for a white towel being thrown onto the pitch! Despite me hoping for a Southwell win, at the end of the day these were still just 7 or 8 year old lads and didn't deserve to be at the back end of a big defeat but they pressed and near the end of the game managed to pull one back much to the delight at both sets of supporters.

When the game drew to a close, I quickly picked up my earnings and set off for Sutton. Arriving at the ground pretty much at the kick off time I was quite delighted to hear that the home side were awaiting a player and hoped for a bit of time to wait for him. This gave me time to get ready, speak to the captains and get the toss sorted ready for kick off when the player arrived.

As it turned out, we waited about 20 minutes and he'd still not arrived so I insisted we get started. Drezden, the home side took to the pitch with just 10 players but had heard that their key man was on his way. They had to play on the counter with a man down but took the lead half way through the half, literally minutes before their man arrived.

Being a new official there will be plenty of occasions where I am unsure what the rules officially allow and this was one of those times. Drezden having played the majority of the first half with ten men now had a new player arrive, was he allowed to come straight on or was he only able to be a sub? Anyhow, both managers accepted that he was to come and be the 11th man so he took his position for the remainder of the first half.

Having taken the lead with ten men, I expected Drezden to take control now they were at full strength, especially as they'd made a point of saying the missing man was on his way back from a representative match, so was obviously of good standard, but it was Robin Hood who took the initiative in the second half and not only were they level soon enough, they took the lead about half way through the half.

Both sides created chances and it was another easy game for me to officiate with little incident. Despite plenty of Drezden pressure late on, including a cross that the wind caught hold of and floated it over the keeper and along the goal line, Robin Hood managed to hold on for the win.

"Well done ref!"

At last! After 3 full months of tiring, difficult though thoroughly enjoyable games as an FA qualified referee, I received my first in-game positive shout from a club manager today!

I was to spend the day in Rainworth for two games for the Rangers at U13 and U16. I hadn't actually heard from the U16 side so hoped by just turning up, I was still able to take the game following the U13 match and that by them not having contacted me meant they had found themselves a replacement. As it happened upon arriving at the ground I learned that the U16 side had folded so I was left with just the single game. I spoke to the referee secretary at half time to see if there was any chance of an afternoon game but the only option was being a linesman at a game quite far away and I didn't fancy travelling all that way to spend almost 2 hours earning just a tenner. The experience would have been useful though.

Making do with the one game, it was a league game between Rainworth Tigers and Drezden Colts, both sides I knew well from my experience as a manager at this age group. I assumed it would bea bit of a whitewash as Rainworth Tigers were quite a strong side from memory, with experience in the top flight, whilst Drezden had fell upon bad times recently, losing a lot of players and spending the past season or two down near the foot of division 3.

As it went though, it was a very close game, both sides creating many chances early on and it stayed tight for the majority of the game. At the start I was informed that one of the Rainworth players suffered from Tourettes syndrome so I shouldn't reprimand him for foul language. As the players were warming up I sought out the player by the number I was given so that I knew who to ignore, but typically I got the wrong one so had stern words with the first player who told me where to go in less friendlier terms! I quickly realised that this was the young player I now had to turn a blind eye too.

Rainworth took the lead in the first half, about 10 minutes in but Drezden were playing well and battled back to equalise. On 2 or 3 occasions, when the away side broke the flag was quite quick to go up even if it looked quite close so I made sure I was keeping up with play to check that the decisions being made were accurate, especially as the Drezden manager was becoming more and more frustrated with the close calls. I'm usually quite good for spotting the linesman as if a ball is played where there is any suspicion of offside, I'll look straight across at him but at one point in the first half, not long after Rainworth had gone 2-1 up, a scramble in the box from a corner led to Drezden equalising again but I was being informed that the flag was up. I went across to speak to the linesman who couldn't quite explain why he had flagged, he just said someone was offside. I questioned which player was offside, if they had played the ball or interfered in any way but the response was quite muted so I didn't hesitate to award the goal.

Again in the second half, the flag popped up on every possible occasion so when it looked dubious I overuled it, much to the delight of the Drezden manager who made a very vocal point of praising me for it. It was great for the confidence as referee's get so much stick so it was finally nice to have some very positive feedback. I had felt that I had got it right and by displaying that I wasn't going to just acknowledge the assistant every time he raised his flag, it seamed to do the trick as it only now went up when there was a clear call to be made.

The rest of the game then went smoothly, Rainworth eventually running out 5-3 victors but Drezden can take a great deal of heart from the performance and I myself was delighted with my own game. After the game a number of spectators from both sides also thanked me for a good game so I took a lot of heart from today.