Finally, some positivity!

After what felt like many bad games back to back, either with my performance, confidence or the fact that I'd inadvertently ticked off one too many managers over the past few weeks, I went into this weekends games determined to ensure everything went as smoothly as possible, and low and behold, I had 2 almost perfect performances.

I started at King George fields in Berry Hill for a cup game between U16 First Division side Forest Town Pumas and Second Division Woodhouse Colts, in a game that was billed to be very one sided. In fact it was a very close tie with Woodhouse's guts neautralising Forest Town's quality, and it was the lower side that took the lead in the opening few minutes of the second half and held it for some time. It was inevitable though that Forest Town would eventually break them down, they'd done everything but including hit the bar, and force a world class save from the very petit Woodhouse stopper. They levelled with a great strike from distance before a mix up at the back between last defender and keeper saw the lanky Town striker nip in between and nod the ball over them both and into the empty goal.

At this point, Forest Town played a lot more casually, with some neat one touch football and stylish tricks but most attacks came to nothing prompting their skipper to remind them they were 2-1 up not 6-1. They were reminded of this even further when with just a couple of minutes to go, a long ball hit forward released a nippy Woodhouse striker who slotted in to equalise and force extra time.

I spoke with one of the makeshift linesman at the end of normal time who praised my performance and the flow of the game, to which I hoped this would continue. Unfortunately, I wasn't going to get everything spot on today and the biggest mestake I made came midway through the first period of extra time. The tall Town striker had forced his way through the Woodhouse defence and was bearing down on goal when one of the centre backs made a last ditch attempt to get a toe to the ball. From where I was it looked like he'd managed to do so, despite the striker crashing to the ground under the tackle. I waved him up much to the disgust of the home crowd and management and play continued.

Forest Town had by far the majority of possession and chances but couldn't find their way through the resilient Colts defence again and they began to get a little frustrated, causing one late tackle near the end of the game to wind up in my book. It hadn't been that sort of game though and was a shame to have had to caution someone so late but it probably would've only been a talking to anyway until he leathered the ball at an opposition player!

And so we had penalties to decide the outcome. The football fan in me wanted the underdogs to succeed but the referee in me hoped Forest Town made it so I wouldn't hear anything else of the penalty decision I knew I had got wrong during extra time. As it were, I had nothing to worry about as Woodhouse missed their first two kicks in very much a Waddle and Pearce fashion and went on to lose the shootout 4-2. I got a lot of congratulations for my part of a great game though the Forest Town manager did question the earlier penalty appeal to which I stated that I had probably got it wrong, to which he was quite ok with - it's a wonder what winning does to a person!

So the first game was a success but I wasn't feeling too confident about the second going so well. It was an U17 league game between Skegby Colts and Woodhouse Colts. This was my big return to Skegby having taken them near the start of the season in a very eventful cup game with Ollerton that ended 5-4 to the latter after extra time, in a match where I gave a penalty decision in the first minute against the home team, cautioned someone who really should've been sent off for a tackle that broke a leg, and had 120 minutes of earache from most of the Skegby players. Was I looking forward to this one, I think not!

Still, I like the challenge so went into the game with confidence and the feeling that I was going to have a good game. It started weirdly though as Skegby didn't appear from the changing room until 1:45 when kick off should've been 1:30. We eventually got started and the game started well. There were some meaty tackles right from the off but most were fair and I had no hesitation calling back the ones that weren't. I had to speak to a couple of players from each side as the tackles got harder and harder and I thought it may not be too long before someone needs booking but I resisted for as long as I could but made it clear that I wouldn't just stand by and watch while someone got hurt.

Skegby controlled much of the game and took a 2-0 goal lead into half time. The second half was contested just as hard but the tackles got fairer and I was pleased I hadn't shown a card yet. A third goal was scored by the home side which all but ended the tie and with this, a young player I recognised from the first game as being the guy who should've been sent where instead I gave a yellow, entered the field of play from the bench. Straight away he began making a nuisance of himself, going in a little hard on a player already on the floor, pulling shirts unneccessarily off the ball and then he took a dive from a clean sliding tackle. I had no hesitation but to book him and his captain, who had spent the 120 minutes of the cup game earlier in the season bellowing at me for every right or wrong decision, this time spent his energy wisely aiming his pleas at the young player who was doing everything he could to turn the yellow into red.

Woodhouse offered little throughout the game and were deservingly beaten 4-0 in all and no more cards were required in the game. It had been another great game and I was pleased when the Skegby manager came to chat about a perfect performance, praising me for resisting getting the cards out too soon and also for how I handled his mouthy substitute. It had been a great day and I felt my confidence grow as I learned from previous weeks, ensuring I went into the games fully focused and prepared to show whose in charge. I later heard that from one of the managers from the 2 games today I had received 100% marks, which can't happen very often!

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.

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.

Easy games at the Manor

I took charge of 2 very easy games today, both at the Manor complex, where I had very little to do. These are always ideal, though the odd bit of controversy always makes for a fun weekend!

The mornings match was between Woodhouse Colts Blue and Shirebrook Rangers Blue at U10. I had taken Shirebrook last week in a 3-0 defeat against Southwell and mentioned in this blog that I thought they were a good team and would probably fair better in their next game. This became true today as they outplayed Woodhouse from the start and earned a comfortable 5-3 win. This may not sound as comfortable as it was b ut can be backed up by the fact they were 5-1 up with about 3 minutes left to play!

The second game was an U12 game between Woodhouse Colts and Teversal. Both sides were very even, with one or two key players and it wasn't a great surprise that the game ended level. I found this a very easy game to officiate with just one tricky moment being a potential penalty appeal as a Teversal player found his way around the keeper but a Woodhouse defender had made it back to cover. The ball had ran lose a couple of times but the keeper hadn't made it back to his position and it had ended with a Teversal striker with his back to goal, trying to keep posession whilst a Woodhouse defender tried to play the ball. Both players hist the deck at one point and I had to decide whether the Woodhouse player had tried to play the ball but brought down the striker instead, but the lack of appeal from either touchline made it easy to wave for play on. It had looked more like the Teversal player had backed into the defender enough to take them both over but their were feet everywhere!

All in all, a good day out!

Season starts - 3 games!

My first weekend as a qualified referee saw me travel to Lowdham for 2 games, one at U14 followed by one at U16. Wanting to make a good impression and start as I mean to go on - as well as give myself plenty of time to find the ground, I set off a good hour before the first kick off time, arriving well before both teams! The ground had one full size pitch, which in the morning was split into 2 junior pitches. I got there just as 1 junior game had started and another were awaiting a referee (so it would appear!).

I was sat on the touchline watching the first junior game when I was approached by the manager of one of the other junior teams who asked if I would ref their game as their official hadn't appeared. It was an easy enough game - Southwell United against Chesterfield at U8, which ended 7-1 to the hosts. That was a nice £15 unexpectedly earned in little over 20 minutes of meandering round a little pitch in the sun.

Straight after this the U14 match kicked off, with Lowdham Colts suffering a 4-1 defeat at the hands of Ashfield Athletic. There were some cracking goals in this game too. A good match to start in full size football with too as I had had doubts about my fitness to get around a pitch for the length of the game but this wasn't an issue as you actually don't do as much running as you would think, despite being almost constantly on the move.

The final game raised a few laughs as those that had spent the day at the ground were noticing I was about to do my third game on the bounce and with the sun beating down, they all wished me luck. Woodhouse Colts Yellows were the visitors and recognising the manager from an FA Coaching course I had taken at MTFC a few years ago, chatted breifly before the game.

His opinion of me had appeared to drop once the game kicked off though as I soon found out he was one of those managers who verbally contested every decision no matter how clear! I don't mind these managers though, in fact I was one myself, so makes a change me being on the receiving end of it. Lowdham Colts Reds U16 won this game 2-1, with the winner coming quite late on, and another belter it was too.

The second half was by far the longest 30 minutes of my life though as severe cramp had set in and I ended the game as one of those refs you see that rarely leave the centre circle! Luckily my eyesight is still with me (just!) so it wasn't noticed that I was lagging well behind play!

After the game, both managers congratulated me for a good game, including Ray (WCFC) who apologised for the fact he turns into an animal once the whistle has started play! A good start to what will hopefully be a very good season.