Hello
I am a trainee ref and did my first open men’s fixture yesterday on short notice due to their ref being unwell and my original fixtures being cancelled due to water logging.
During the the game, one or two players from the losing team were hurling a lot of verbal abuse and showing some poor behaviour, like one saying “you’ve been f****ing sh*t all game” and proceeding to boot the ball out of frustration. At the end of the game I overheard one of them saying “surely he’s not a ref”.
This dented my confidence. But by pure fortune, a referee tutor/assessor happened to be observing and approached be at the end of the game to offer some great feedback.
My question to you fellow referees: how do you mentally deal with these comments? I guess it kind of knocked my confidence but I’m never going to give up.
Note: I cautioned with a yellow. Assessor advised in future that I must sinbin but also, he said he wouldn’t have had an issue if I awarded a red either. V helpful advice in what is a lonely and isolating role. My RDO rarely respond to my messages/emails.
I am a trainee ref and did my first open men’s fixture yesterday on short notice due to their ref being unwell and my original fixtures being cancelled due to water logging.
During the the game, one or two players from the losing team were hurling a lot of verbal abuse and showing some poor behaviour, like one saying “you’ve been f****ing sh*t all game” and proceeding to boot the ball out of frustration. At the end of the game I overheard one of them saying “surely he’s not a ref”.
This dented my confidence. But by pure fortune, a referee tutor/assessor happened to be observing and approached be at the end of the game to offer some great feedback.
My question to you fellow referees: how do you mentally deal with these comments? I guess it kind of knocked my confidence but I’m never going to give up.
Note: I cautioned with a yellow. Assessor advised in future that I must sinbin but also, he said he wouldn’t have had an issue if I awarded a red either. V helpful advice in what is a lonely and isolating role. My RDO rarely respond to my messages/emails.