Pure Quality

I shot myself in the foot a little this weekend by not sorting my messages in time. I was down for 2 games today, the first at Mansfield Woodhouse, followed by a game at Arnold, but the times clashed meaning I couldn't do both and by not sorting out in the week, I was left with just the early game at Manor.

Whilst I'm disappointed for both the money and the experience that I lost a game, I'm delighted that the game I managed to take was the cup game between Woodhouse U12's and South Normanton. I arrived bright and early for it and spoke with both managers before getting set for kick off.

I was a little worried how my fitness would hold up for the 60 minute match having not taken a game since the 12th December and other than one 6 a-side match, I'd done very little over these weeks to keep my physique up. Games at the under 12 age group tend to be fairly easy though, despite being on a full size pitch, not a great deal of running is involved.

At the start, it looked as though it was going to be a close game with Woodhouse attacking early and creating a couple of chances early on but it was evident very soon after which way the game was likely to head. Both sides were in the top division but at very different ends with Normanton leading the way with Woodhouse just one place off the bottom, and there were to be no shocks in this game.

Having officiated over 40 games already this season, I've seen some great games, some close, others not so much, but this one has to go down as the greatest performance of any team so far. I've been at games where the result has looked very one-sided, many in double figures, and though this game never looked likely to reach that level, finishing 6-0 to South Normanton, their performance was of absolute top drawer quality.

Every player in every position did everything right. Usually, you see teams - good teams, where a handful of players do the damage and they're surrounded by better than average players who do what is expected of them but not much more. But the entire Normanton team had a big say in this victory, everyone wanted the ball and could do things with it, from the front right to the back. Their football was a pleasure to watch, it was intelligent, with quick touches, fluent movement and clever balls being played across the line and through the middle. Any neutral watching wouldn't've been able to say that the lads on the pitch were only 11 or 12 years old, it was a pleasure to watch.

At the end of the game I spoke to the South Normanton manager and told him that he had one hell of a team and that was the best performance by a team of any age that I had ever seen - hell I'd even go as far to say I'd never watched a game at professional level that measured up to their performance. I hope I get to referee for them again soon.