Treble under the Spire

The Mansfield Youth League season got underway on Saturday 10th September in the sun and I was down for a trio of games in the morning in Chesterfield. Thankfully they included 2 mini soccer games as I was following these matches up with a senior match at Retford in the afternoon, so wanted to have at least some legs left for this!

The games were (scores in brackets):

U10 - Chesterfield Town Whites v Glapwell Gladiators (8-0)
U10 - Chesterfield Town Juniors v Manor FC Red (7-0)
U11 - Chesterfield Town Whites v Teversal FC (3-4)

The games were far from difficult, as you would hope at this level and I enjoyed all 3. No complaints from all 6 managers and despite plenty of goalmouth action, not a great deal of anything of note that will make these games particularly memorable in years to come.

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!