Just my third game back and already had "one of those games".
U14 youth match (red v yellow) on Saturday morning ended with three yellows, two sin bins and two reds. Relatively easy first half aside from an early penalty to yellow after a clumsy challenge from the defender (no real complaints) and a caution for red for a poor challenge on the keeper at the back end of the half.
First sign of any real issue was some verbals between two players as they walked off at half time, but I was right on top of it and stepped in to calm things down - quick word with both and a warning to cool it down. No idea what brought this on, but overheard the red coach riling his team up ("get into them"/"let him know you're there" etc) at half time and pretty much straight away at the start of the second half the niggly kicks/leaving a bit in the challenge from the reds started. I kept on top of it as much as I could (quiet words with players, making sure I was right on top of everything positionally etc) and on the second challenge from one of the red players pulled him in for a word and warned him that any more would result in a caution; not 30 seconds later he was late again, so into the book he went.
I could feel the temperature rising, so went with the "kill the game" approach that we often mention on here. Another reckless challenge from a red player resulted in more verbals, minor handbags and another caution, at which point I pulled the captains in and told them they had two options, which were for me to play no advantages, get free kicks taken from the exact blade of grass etc or they get their teams under control and we get back to playing (should add that I didn't feel able to release the game at any point after that). This worked for yellows, who stopped reaction to the behaviour of the reds, but not for reds who decided that they'd have the final say on every decision - 2 reds were warned and ultimately sin binned, which obviously meant that I'd cost them the game. With 5 minutes to go, the first red player's time in the sin bin was up so I jogged over at a break in play to tell him he could come back on, only to have the manager tell me "he's not coming back on because it won't end well for you if he does" ; tried to tell the manager that he could sub him if he wanted to, but he decided to tell me to "get lost and finish the game".
At this point I couldn't wait for the game to end, but with a couple of minutes to go an innocuous challenge caused another blow up. Two players squared up before red head butted yellow and yellow responded with a butt of his own. Calmed the situation down and moved yellow away whilst I dismissed red, before calling in yellow and dismissing him. With only 2 minutes to go and with the score at 3-0 I made a judgement call and blew for full time.
It's been on my mind all weekend and I'm really not sure what else I could have done - I tried everything I could to get the game back and genuinely don't recall there being any sign that the game was heading that way. Feels like I was on a hiding to nothing after half time. Any advice on what people think I could have done differently would be greatly appreciated.
U14 youth match (red v yellow) on Saturday morning ended with three yellows, two sin bins and two reds. Relatively easy first half aside from an early penalty to yellow after a clumsy challenge from the defender (no real complaints) and a caution for red for a poor challenge on the keeper at the back end of the half.
First sign of any real issue was some verbals between two players as they walked off at half time, but I was right on top of it and stepped in to calm things down - quick word with both and a warning to cool it down. No idea what brought this on, but overheard the red coach riling his team up ("get into them"/"let him know you're there" etc) at half time and pretty much straight away at the start of the second half the niggly kicks/leaving a bit in the challenge from the reds started. I kept on top of it as much as I could (quiet words with players, making sure I was right on top of everything positionally etc) and on the second challenge from one of the red players pulled him in for a word and warned him that any more would result in a caution; not 30 seconds later he was late again, so into the book he went.
I could feel the temperature rising, so went with the "kill the game" approach that we often mention on here. Another reckless challenge from a red player resulted in more verbals, minor handbags and another caution, at which point I pulled the captains in and told them they had two options, which were for me to play no advantages, get free kicks taken from the exact blade of grass etc or they get their teams under control and we get back to playing (should add that I didn't feel able to release the game at any point after that). This worked for yellows, who stopped reaction to the behaviour of the reds, but not for reds who decided that they'd have the final say on every decision - 2 reds were warned and ultimately sin binned, which obviously meant that I'd cost them the game. With 5 minutes to go, the first red player's time in the sin bin was up so I jogged over at a break in play to tell him he could come back on, only to have the manager tell me "he's not coming back on because it won't end well for you if he does" ; tried to tell the manager that he could sub him if he wanted to, but he decided to tell me to "get lost and finish the game".
At this point I couldn't wait for the game to end, but with a couple of minutes to go an innocuous challenge caused another blow up. Two players squared up before red head butted yellow and yellow responded with a butt of his own. Calmed the situation down and moved yellow away whilst I dismissed red, before calling in yellow and dismissing him. With only 2 minutes to go and with the score at 3-0 I made a judgement call and blew for full time.
It's been on my mind all weekend and I'm really not sure what else I could have done - I tried everything I could to get the game back and genuinely don't recall there being any sign that the game was heading that way. Feels like I was on a hiding to nothing after half time. Any advice on what people think I could have done differently would be greatly appreciated.