A&H

'Pub Football'

Bennn

New Member
Level 7 Referee
Just after Abit of advice...
I have been Reffing for about 7 months now I have reffed mainly U14/U16 aswell as U18s games.
I recently have been advised to start Reffing open aged matches.
I had my first game last week on the Sunday morning league (Pub League)
I really didn't know what to expect, I felt I handled the game well, there was a red card incident and two penalties.

I felt like I didn't get any respect from anyone wether it's my age (18) or just people didn't agree with my decisions. How do people cope with these games? I was vocal and clear with my decisions, I defused a few situations, there was a lot of challenges flying in and the game was very aggressive, I thought I did well a few lads coming off the pitch said I did well for my age and they wouldn't do it at my age.
I have my second game Sunday, just after some tips on controlling the game and player management with Sunday league

I'm also Reffing this Saturday on the line in a local county league, and have gone for my promotion so looking to try and get as far as I can :)
Thanks
 
The Referee Store
Hi Ben, congrats on the first OA game tucked away under your belt. those could be daunting sometimes so well done on completing it. It seems that you did well on the first game, from the impressions you got from some of the players without having any details about the match incidents i can't think of specific advice but some general tips i found helpful.

1- Enjoy it always, turn up with a smile and leave with a smile. It makes a difference, at least mentally to you if no one else.
2- Be confident, be big in your actions and your whistle and body language. This is not to say you should look to have controversial calls or be arrogant on the contrary. If you look confident and your signals show that, then hopefully you get less grief. I'm afraid being a referee you will always be subjected to that.
3- Be courteous, but take no BS from no one. Answer questions about your calls, if you feel they warrant one, try not to be dismissive but remember you have a game to follow and concentrate on so be brief be concise and try to sound/appear empathetic using words like I understand where you're coming from. I see why you saw/think it was that, but i saw it differently
4- Use the opportunity of being the AR to learn, observe how other referees run their game. See what might(or not) work for you, and don't be afraid to ask them questions (after the game or HT but never during the game) about certain decisions or actions they took.
5- try to get a mentor assigned to you either by the league or county FA so they can observe you and provide you with more specific feedback on your strengths and development points.
6- Last but not least, learn the LOTG read it again, review clips and make sure you understand how the LOTG is applied in these clips

And again try to enjoy it, and if you have a bad day at the office; dust yourself up review what happened and learn from it!
 
That's Sunday morning football for you. As you progress the number of bad ones gets less though there will always be the wtf happened there ones! Often from nowhere, an innocuous challenge and all hell breaks loose.

You learn to relax, step back, observe and deal with it.

When a player tells me he is reporting me I will offer to help with the longer words. Only a a Sunday mind- Saturday football is generally better

Enjoy
 
The first bit of advice is....try and find a non 'pub' league. Very often Sunday morning leagues are full of pi55heads still hung over from the night before and will frequently give even experienced refs a 'bit of trouble'...That said, it's a good grounding and as others have said, be confident, even when you aren't, keep talking to the players, 'well done', 'good challenge', 'careful', or whatever. Most of all though, remember to enjoy it.
 
You will always get comments from players on a Sunday morning, sometimes they do it to try and get in your head other times its normal reaction, they have seen it on TV or last weeks ref gave a different decision. You will often find that some will say to you after, sorry about all the moaning ref, but had to try it, you never know (it's the old don't ask don't get approach).

The best thing I was told when I first started out is pre-match do not go into too much detail with the teams on what you will/won't do/expect as they will hold you to that all game, and then question every decision you make that potentially goes against what you said earlier.

As long as you treat them like adults (sometimes easier said than done) and explain decisions (if asked in an appropriate manner) and talk to players throughout the game they generally leave you alone.

Either that or take a hard line approach early on, but that can sometimes cause more harm than good.
 
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