Mole Attack!

Had a peculiar start to this weekends action as the first match (Welbeck Welfare v Mansfield Athletic, U14) had to be delayed by 30 minutes whilst we filled in a huge channel of divots created by moles! Thought for one minute that I might have to call the game off because of them but we managed to fill them in and get started.

This was the 3rd time this season I'd officiated for WWU14's and they definately give their supporters value for money! Following on from last week's 5-1 win and previously the 11-2 win in my first game for them, this time they cruised to a 14-0 victory! I didn't have a great deal to do (once the game had actually started!), no big decisions to make, cards stayed in my pocket, though 2 clear penalties were awarded, 1 for each team - though you only need to see the score to see how each side faired with theirs!

As the game got started at 11am instead of 10:30, I couldn't fulfil my duties for my second game so had to call the referee's secretary to sort it. He swapped his afternoon game with mine, so I travelled to Arnold Town to do their U18 side take on a decent West Bridgeford outfit.

That game had a bit of a funny start too as it was originally pencilled in for a 2:30pm kick off, but as they shared the pitch with other teams, an earlier game was called off so they could start sooner. Both teams had obviously made an effort to round up their players and get their as soon as possible, like me, we all got there at about 1:45, ready for a 2pm start. Somehow though, another side had squeezed themselves onto the pitch so we had to wait another 40 minutes and didn't get started until 2:40pm. Now it was a race against time with the sun quickly disappearing! Would we get a 90 minute match played?

It wasn't a bad game to officiate, only made more difficult by one Arnold lad who became overly frustrated with every decision that went against him. West Bridgeford were a well organised side, who kept their appeals to a minimum and deservedly took a 2-0 lead into the break. Within 30 seconds of the restart though, my 3rd clear penalty of the day pulled it back to 2-1 and Arnold threw plenty forward. It wasn;t until the last 10 minutes that Bridgeford sealed the game with 2 quick goals and as the light disappeared fast, I was left with a decision whether to end the game now or try and get through the last 6 minutes in the very little light that was left. It was difficult for me to be able to see things clearly and with Arnold getting a little rough I didn't want things to get out of hand. I called in the two captains and asked if they wanted to continue and if so, to support me as best as they could. In the end, the 6 or so minutes came pretty quickly and without incident the game ended 4-1.

Two good games

Quite an easy day for me today as I started with an early morning local game for Welbeck Welfare U14 against Ravenshead Reds. This was the second time I had been in charge of Welbeck U14's, and knowing the manager there, it's always good to catch up. Ravenshead had lost their last game 19-0 so probably surprised a few people when they took an early lead! It didn't last long though as Welbeck ran out 5-1 winners.

The second game actually took place on the home ground of my own Sunday team, so was one of few grounds in the county I'll have no trouble finding! It was another good game, Rolls Royce Leisure against Woodhouse Colts at U16. There was a slight delay when I got there as both sides had turned up in yellow strips so the home manager had to shoot off for their away kit.

The game went from end to end but it still took right up to the last 10 minutes for the first goal to go in, with Rolls Royce scoring it. However, Woodhouse equalised 5 minutes later for a deserved 1-1. Not much to do myself other than issue 1 caution against a Woodhouse player for 2 late tackles.

1 of 3

As covered already in this blog I started refereeing this season for a number of reasons, which range from staying active in the game, having ambitions of seeing how far I can take it, improve my fitness, understand the game from a referee's persepective and to have something to do on Saturday's when my better half is at work but another key reason is for the extra income, especially in this, my wedding year.

So I was delighted to have been put down for 3 games this weekend and hope that I could manage to juggle them so that I could actually take all 3 on comfortably. They were all close by with 2 being for Ashfield Athletic and the third being for QE Rangers, who play in Ashfield. I had worried about them all being 11 a-side games as you'd hope that if you were taking multiple games in the day that you'd start with the easy 7 a-side games but these were to be U12, U14 and U15, so a fair bit of running for me to do!

As it turned out, 2 of the fixtures clashed and couldn't be altered, and the QE game got postponed so I ended up with just the one, which was a big shame. That being said, the U14 game between Ashfield Athletic and Newark Town Cavaliers was a great game that ended 5-1 to Ashfield and probably could've been a lot more. It was an easy game to officiate with no big decisions to make and no-one needed talking to for any discipline issues. I still received a little dig from a spectator for having 'bottled' a decision late on to award Ashfield a penalty when a cross from the left win clipped an arm on the way over but the arm wasn't raised and there was no time for the player to get out of the way so it certainly wasn't a penalty but the spectator only said it in jest anyway!

22-0! Oh Dear!

I've said many times this season that I've felt for the college team at NNC, as they're up against sides of much higher calibre and should have probably been pulled from the league long before the day after this game. This match, their 5th and worst of them all, was eventually their last official one of the season.

Cutting a long story short, they were hammered 22-0 by a very well-oiled Derby College side. Surprisingly they did finish without any sendings off, not through a want of trying though as Wes, who I'd already sent off once and booked on another occasion, was initially booked for a bit of a kick out, before purposely handling the ball preventing a Derby attack. I just gave him a word though as the score was at 20-0 and there was just 5 minutes to play, and also NNC had already been reduced to 9 players after a mass of injuries. Certainly a red on another day though!

The match itself was easy to officiate. There were a couple of clear penalty decisions given in Derby College's favour, and the only other challenge faced was the earache I was being given by a young NNC full back who, from about 15-0 onwards was asking me to blow for full time in sympathy! I had to sternly tell him at one stage that I couldn't do this with his reply being "of course you can, you've got the whistle!" I simply informed him I was a football referee, not a boxing ref! I did feel sorry for them though. Hopefully, now they've been withdrawn from the league they'll face much closer opposition in future.

15 and Out!

My 6th official game for my Sunday side, Hucknall Rangers against Nottingham Knights, became my last as a referee for a few reasons. Coming off the back of some heavy criticism in the last match for them against Linney Group on 25th October, I felt this game had gone a lot better. Rangers had won 15-0 and I didn't have many things to do other than award a couple of clear penalties in Hucknall's favour and caution a very lippy defender. But following this match, I was still criticised by a couple of Hucknall players, who I'd considered mates for the past couple of years, so thought enough was enough.

I'd taken on the task of officiating for Hucknall as a favour to manager and good friend Leon, saving him the task of tracking down a much sought after official every other week, saving him a little money in the process, whilst giving me some extra valuable experience reffing at this level (and some extra cash), as well as staying on the scene with the team whilst I recovered from my broken ankle.

After 2 seasons with AFC Hucknall, the team had been disbanded and reformed under a new name but with many of the same lads as before but there were a lot of new faces so it was good to stay amongst them, rather than not play a part at all until I had fully recovered as the task of trying to get back into the team with a lot of unknowns would have been much harder.

This game itself could have been a lot more had it not been for some wasteful play in front of goal, but I think 15-0 was hard enough on the opposition!

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.

College boys beaten again

Taking NNC for their 4th game of the season, I'd hoped for their sake that they would fare better in this game but I didn't expect much. They were up against a Moulton College side who were struggling against the same opposition that NNC were being hammered against regularly so maybe both teams had awaited this game in the hope of getting something from it.

Moulton were the side that started the brightest and despite NNC keeping them at bay for the first 15 minutes, in typical fashion, once NNC went 1 down, heads dropped and they lost all shape and momentum. Moulton headed into the break 3-0 up and secured the same number of goals in the second half for a 6-0 win. There were positives that NNC could take from the game, not least the number of goals conceded were reduced than recent games, they also finished the game with all 11 for a change and also flirted with the opposition goal a couple of times, though couldn't manage to find their way into it.