Tough Day

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Saturday was Extra Prelim. Round day for the FA Cup and I was lucky enough to get one of these ties.   This was between two supply league teams and I was expecting a tough cup game.  I wasnt wrong.

Pretty much all day Friday and Saturday morning it had rained.  I was expecting a greasy pitch with some tough challenges going in.  I wasnt wrong, first caution to the home side after 4 minutes for a reckless challenge.

I got the obvious argument about it being the first foul.  However as  pointed out if I let that one go I would have set my tolerance level so high I would have basically allowed it to be a free for all.  The half continued to start in the competitive way that I expected.

The away side took the lead quite early on and had a good chance to score a second a few minutes later.   However later in the half the home side pulled it back to 1-1.   We then had the first of two penalty.   A corner was over hit by the home side with the ball going out wide as an attacker and defender went after the ball the defender pushed him in the back sending him to the ground.   As someone pointed out "he had to push him over as he was in the way!".    This was scored and the home side went in 2-1 at half time.

There had been two other cautions during the half one for kicking the ball away over a throw in.  Take you pick on that it could be delaying restart or dissent.   The other for being a bit reckless with an arm in an aerial challenge.   The player had a tendency to jump with his arms out and just wasnt taking the hint or the polite word.  As it happened it was useful having cautioned him as when an away side player jumped into someone later and used his arm as a shield I had a precedent and got no grief with a second similar caution.

The second half though got off to an intense start.  The away side had made changes at half time and were putting cross after cross into the box with chances going ver close and eventually this paid off with them pulling level then taking a 3-2 lead.

Early on in the second half we had a flash point which was made worse by the home side coming on to the field of play.   A home team player who I had spoken to earlier went in with a clumsy challenge and the away team player retaliated.  Queue handbags, however as players came into calm it down the home team bench decided they would help.  So it looked a lot worse than it was. However the biggest problem was I couldn't get to two players to move away as they just wanted to stand there calling one another names but nothing more.  So a whistle in one of their ears broke the conversation up and I then had their attention to issue two cautions.

It was soon time for the second penalty.  At  this point the home side had pulled it back to 3-3 and a replay looked on the cards, a game I was not do.   The ball was pumped into the home team box and the captain reached around an attackers shoulder pulling him backwards giving away a penalty, which they scored to make it 4-3 and win the game.

We did though before we finished have chance for one more incident.  The player I had issued the first caution to challenged an opponent and won the ball.  The opponent made a comment to him and he reacted in an aggressive manner.  Two cautions later and the home player is sent off for his second caution.

Assesments

On a post a few weeks back I was asked the following  question by Winecape

"Question here from South Africa: The assessors form used to assess the referees in your country. What form/headings and or point structure do they use? I’m curios as to how you get rated officially in comparison to our assessment forms here in the Premier Soccer League (PSL). What are the salient points in the form, and do they count to a specific points total etc.?

Any info will be helpful. I know that South Africa (earlier in my career) based their referee assessments partly on the UK Premiership model, but don’t know if this still the case."

At supply league level the Referee's assessment is split in to 7 Area's. Application of Law, positioning and Work Rate, Alertness, Communication, Team Work, Advantage and Match Control.  The assessor will talk about each section highlighting any strengths and development points (no weakness anymore).  Also there will be some narrative about incidents etc.

At the end of the assessment there should be (but not always) 3 strengths and then depends on the assessor 3 development points.  However just because you've only got 2 development points don't think your going to get a great mark!  I had this last season when despite having only 2 development points I got a 68.  When I questioned it I was told to accept it and that assessor is a known tough marker.

Then at the end there is a mark awarded with 70 the expected standard.  If it is greater than 85 or less than 65 it has to go through the assessor co-ordinator first.  The mark is calculated by a weighting for  each area.  Each area is marked out of 5 then multiplied by its weighting. Application of Law & Match Control are X5  (so 50% of the marks) The rest are x2.

Contrib assistant assessments are a similar method however there are just 5 categories.  These are Alertness, Support, Signals, Offside (Active & passive) and Fitness & Positioning.   These are marked out of 10 with each one have a weighting of x2.   It's genearly hard to get anything above an 80 as an assistant.  It's not impossible but you are limited to what happens in the game.  A case in point Saturday I received all 8's bar a 7 for offside.  I didn't have one gall game and wasnt even close to giving one.  So couldnt argue.  The other assistant had 1 which ruled out a chance on goal.  He got a 80.  I've no issue with that and thats the way it goes.  Likewise a few years ago I received a 92 and the factor in this was I had called the Referee over for an off the ball incident.

Hopefully that helps answer your question. I would be interested to know how other country's work to assess Referee's.  I know there are people in Canada, Ireland and New Zealand that read this so feel free to add to the comments or email me and ill put a post up on it.

Last minute winner

After a few weeks of lines, I had another Supply League middle.  The home team hadn't lost a league game yet this season, so when they were 2-0 down it looked like it was going to be the first.  However after an away defender handled the ball on the line, and they were reduced to 10 men.  It was going to be difficult to hold out.

The home team pulled it back and with in the 5th minute of stoppage time they scored the winner.

It was a tricky game in that from being 1-0 down the home team were constantly trying to work me to get me on their side and penalise legal running down of the clock.

Bit rubbish

Following up on the decent Conf North game, I had a line on one of the Contirb Leagues, league cup.  Iwas to be honest a bit crap.   For whatever reason all day id felt nackerd, had a bad day of work, and couldnt get my concentration better than last for a few minutes.  Stupid work problem getting entering my mind, stupid monkey mind.

I managed to go completely the wrong way on a throw in, which was quite funny as well.  I had given into the away side in front of the away technical area.  I was so wrong, when the Referee gave it to the home side, right in front of them, they didnt say a word.

Luckily though I was awake for the first goal.   Home team have a shot from edge of area, keeper dives low and saves, but then let's go.  So attacker follows in and shoots, keeper tips it on to the bar.  The ball come back from the bar to the attacker who has followed it to the touch-line, and then plays it back to his team-mate who is offside, 6 yards from goal and scores.

The away team went mad, but at half time understood why he hadn't been flagged offside after we explained it.

Pulled Thigh

I had a contrib line on Tuesday night in a league cup game.  First half went well with no issues, and the score's level at 1-1.  unfortunately a couple of minutes in I went to sprint down the touch-line and my left thigh tightened up.  I tried to loosen it off but if there was a good sprint I was losing pace on the players by a yard.  I managed to complete the game by anticipating play and stretching it during non active times.  Lucky for me we didnt go into extra time as the home team won 2-1.

I did consider calling the Referee across and telling him I was in trouble.  however decided unless it got to the point that It was either going to be a real issue or I couldnt carry on not to concern him as this would have given him something to consider during the game.

Yesterday my thigh was sore and I was also getting pain in my groin, hip and lower back so I had clearly upset something.  However todays it's just a bit tight.  I dont have a game this weekend as I am working and have nothing until next Tuesday, which isnt a supply or contrib game so I may drop that yet.   Will see how it goes.