GCS1982
New Member
So my 1st match as a referee was carried out at the weekend, the match was an U14 friendly, so therefore no team sheets or proper substitutions were taking place, subs rolling on & off with my discretion. The “away” team only had 10 players so had to borrow a goalkeeper from the “home” team, which changed positions about 5 times!
I arrived at the location a full 60 mins prior to a 11 am kick off, even though the match was to be played on an all-weather pitch I still wanted to check it out, as the temp was at the time -2, I also wanted to make sure I was ready in all aspects for the game. The home teams coach was already in attendance, so I collected the key to the referee’s changing room, the referee’s room can only be described as a broom cupboard with 2 washing machines in it, oh well not ideal, however there was enough room to get changed and use the washing machines as a table for my stuff.
I met my assessor, who informed me it wasn’t ideal that my 1st match was a friendly, the match itself went through pretty smoothly, I made 1 mistake during the 1st half where I gave a throw in to the Orange team, the Red teams coach showed his frustration and continued to protest that it was in fact a Red throw in, I made my decision and stuck with the Orange team, at this point I said to the coach, I am the ref and it’s my decision, I was met with a voice, probably one of the parents shouting, “shocking, shocking decision” it was only at half time when I spoke to my assessor, he said it was a red throw in, but it was good I stuck to my decision. He said I was doing ok, but had to take care on my positioning etc, and I was blowing the whistle to much!
2nd half started smoothly again, I only really had one thing to do, one player made a rash challenge, so I had a quick word with him and ordered a direct free kick. End of the match, I collected my flags spoke to my assessor, he said I missed a blatant offside, however nobody shouted from the side lines or on the pitch so everybody else didn’t notice it, I can already see from my 1st match that offsides are going to be difficult to notice. My assessor said I did a good job and to treat these games as a learning curve. One thing I did notice, at the full-time whistle not one player or coach shook my hand, I was always taught as a player if close to the referee, you should shake his hand to show respect. After I got changed and collected my match fee’s one of the coaches, said cheers for the game. So my 1st game went without any real glitches, however I would have like to carry out proper procedure for substitutions and team sheets but onto the next game, did I enjoy it the experience??, to be honest, nah not really!
I arrived at the location a full 60 mins prior to a 11 am kick off, even though the match was to be played on an all-weather pitch I still wanted to check it out, as the temp was at the time -2, I also wanted to make sure I was ready in all aspects for the game. The home teams coach was already in attendance, so I collected the key to the referee’s changing room, the referee’s room can only be described as a broom cupboard with 2 washing machines in it, oh well not ideal, however there was enough room to get changed and use the washing machines as a table for my stuff.
I met my assessor, who informed me it wasn’t ideal that my 1st match was a friendly, the match itself went through pretty smoothly, I made 1 mistake during the 1st half where I gave a throw in to the Orange team, the Red teams coach showed his frustration and continued to protest that it was in fact a Red throw in, I made my decision and stuck with the Orange team, at this point I said to the coach, I am the ref and it’s my decision, I was met with a voice, probably one of the parents shouting, “shocking, shocking decision” it was only at half time when I spoke to my assessor, he said it was a red throw in, but it was good I stuck to my decision. He said I was doing ok, but had to take care on my positioning etc, and I was blowing the whistle to much!
2nd half started smoothly again, I only really had one thing to do, one player made a rash challenge, so I had a quick word with him and ordered a direct free kick. End of the match, I collected my flags spoke to my assessor, he said I missed a blatant offside, however nobody shouted from the side lines or on the pitch so everybody else didn’t notice it, I can already see from my 1st match that offsides are going to be difficult to notice. My assessor said I did a good job and to treat these games as a learning curve. One thing I did notice, at the full-time whistle not one player or coach shook my hand, I was always taught as a player if close to the referee, you should shake his hand to show respect. After I got changed and collected my match fee’s one of the coaches, said cheers for the game. So my 1st game went without any real glitches, however I would have like to carry out proper procedure for substitutions and team sheets but onto the next game, did I enjoy it the experience??, to be honest, nah not really!