A&H

First game under flood lights..

  • Thread starter Deleted member 3014
  • Start date
D

Deleted member 3014

Guest
Refereed my first game under lights tonight it was a vets game down at Slough Town FC lovely little ground modern facilities could get used to it, think they’re in Evo stick league of some description.

Anyway good & bad tonite, I had no Lino’s first time for me found it hard wasn’t 100% on quite a few of them also altered my positioning so I could call them half right Atleast, did not enjoy it one bit tbh.

Very good standard of footy tbh they’re supposed to be 35+ but half looked way under that, the passing was fantastic hardly any fouls & completely different to sat / sun footy, it was on 4g pitch which again was a first for me.

So under the lights was interesting to start with espicially if I occasionally looked up for whatever reason and got the lights right in my eyes, anyway my positioning was woeful tonite people I dunno what my problem is but it’s becoming an issue now, I must admit I’ve been a pig today eating sh*te all day so that didn’t help with mobility but seriously I’ve got to get ontop of this positioning issue.

Also had a scenario tonite ball passed to attacker he’s offside but it deflects of defender on its way to him so I play on, haven’t got a clue if that was the right call or not so I didn’t explain it to defenders i kept my mouth shut. I remember a lovren v spurs incident recently wasn’t that the same situation?

Anyway good experience tonite nice to be at a proper little ground but my positioning was poor but once again positive response from players after game, somehow I’m still getting in right positions to make calls I’m just chasing my tail to get there.

This was the best standard of footy I’ve ref’d yet, a few ex pro club yts players out there & ex conference players so big difference to the Sunday scraps I’ve been used to, I thought it’d be easier to ref a possession based game but in truth I found it harder.

Mixed feelings tonite folkes mixed feelings.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
The Referee Store
Hey, well done, sounds like a great game to ref. I'm envious.

First thing: keep posting here. Your journey is fascinating;)

35 and 40 year old games with no ARs are tough for me. The guys can pass, are strong and can play dirty when required. These are also great games to "practice".

It is hard work to get up and down with no ARs - unless you choose to camp out in the centre circle, which is what a lot of refs that can't run will do.

On the movement: same advice, don't panic... Is that 10 games now? Have you run the line yet? Watching/talking with other refs at a similar level on the spot will really help you with positioning IMHO
 
On the offside, you have to decide if it is a deliberate play of the ball, a deflection or a save.

Lovren's was a deliberate play (albeit awkward and falling over)... Unless the defender was close and/or is not aware of the pass, a deflection is unlikely but... You have to be there... And only your opinion matters;)
 
My biggest issue was worrying about the offsides I’ve grown accustom to having lino’s & although they can cause an issue from time to time Atleast I can spend more time and focus on the game itself and my game rather than worry about the line everytime the ball is played forward, it really did throw me tbh.

As for the offside in all honestly I can’t say hand on heart if he made a play for the ball i just know it came off him and my instinct was to play on, ill have to find the exact law on it for next time I guess.

But yeah I’m just trying to get out there as much as I can, I’m late to the game so Got a bit of catching upto do, also I was that woeful in my first few games I thought Jesus I’ve got a challenge on here, but yeah just keep working at it I guess oh and of course the money helps.
 
Refereeing under flood lights is a bit tricky at first. I find that it can be offputting having multiple shadows on the players.
Having no AR's does change things. I tend to find that you really need to think about your positioning - and the diagonal becomes more of a 'suggestion'.
I've had games with no AR's where I've basically spent huge portions of the game standing in line with one team's sweeper. It just so happened that that's how the game was going.
Remember, positioning is about weighing up the likelihood of various things happening, of the significance of each of those things and how different positions affect your capacity to judge each of them about pre-empting play and getting into a position that calculates all of those. So in some games, there was absolutely no fouling or anything occurring, lots of offside up one end only, and play was very compressed. Sometimes crazy positioning is best.
Those exceptions aside, yes, you might have to pre-empt play a bit more, and you may have to move upfield a bit more sometimes.
There are strategies you can use to held with judging offside. You will need to be glancing upfield a lot more to monitor offside position, so getting wide may help you minimise how much you have to take your eye off the ball.
I learned a technique of sort of running my eyes left and right across the grass near the offside mark in a line. This kind of draws an imaginary line for myself, and it really helps.
Aside from that, think about your positioning at critical incidents. At a ceremonial free kick, you might want to stand on the offside line rather than front-on. At a corner kick, I adopt a position off the field, around the edge of the GA on the kicker's side rather than the corner of the PA on the field.
Personally, I tend to adopt those positions when I have CAR's and not NAR's anyway
 
Don’t worry about getting offsides wrong, well, the marginal ones anyway. On your own is tough but it’s the same inconsistency for both teams. They haven’t offered or paid for help then they shouldn’t complain. I’ve never considered shadows but they may actually help a bit as they are horizontal to the floor and not a vertical reference!!

I’ve done Vets games and seen the skullduggery and skilful stuff too. Enjoyed them too!
 
Interesting debate re positioning for offsides. I used to stand level with the 2nd to last defender on free kicks but as time went on I went back to normal positioning. As for inevitably get the odd offside wrong with no AR's, the usual explanation to the moaning defenders/strikers, "I wish I had your view or an AR but I haven't so I'll just do my best" etc usually works. Its amazing how as a player you never consider the difficulties the ref faces, u just think the ref should get everything right! If you explain it well they usually accept the difficulties a ref has without an AR. The usual light hearted "I'm doing 3 jobs here, you're only doing 1!" Tends to settle things down too. Not always, sometimes they just think you're useless haha
 
It was on a 4g pitch I can’t stand it tbh, football isn’t football unless it’s on grass, this whole 4g revolution I understand some parts of the world would struggle to play games and maintain a pitch all year round, I also get the whole revenue stream with an artificial surface & what it does for the community but from a selfish point of view give me a mud bath of a grass pitch every day of the week over 4g.
 
Men in Black said:
It was on a 4g pitch I can’t stand it tbh, football isn’t football unless it’s on grass, this whole 4g revolution I understand some parts of the world would struggle to play games and maintain a pitch all year round, I also get the whole revenue stream with an artificial surface & what it does for the community but from a selfish point of view give me a mud bath of a grass pitch every day of the week over 4g.
Click to expand...
10 years ago nearly all our 4th div and below games were played on sand/gravel. On one hand it was a great equaliser for "mixed ability" players but games were rubbish, injuries were horrible... And as a ref... There's no way you want to do 10km in 90 mins on that. Fast forward and now almost all 3-7th div games and all serious youth games are on (rubber pellet) artificial grass. The football is just on a different planet. And you can actually run. I ref/line only maybe 5% of games on real grass. We have a short growing season. Give me good artificial over average grass every time.

You have the luxury of a grass field friendly climate in England. Come to swampy minus 15 Helsinki for a few November games and you will be singing its praises!
 
Even in the UK 3/4G artificial surfaces are much better than grass surfaces at the lower levels of football.
 
Trip said:
Even in the UK 3/4G artificial surfaces are much better than grass surfaces at the lower levels of football.
Click to expand...

At least they're even. Can't stand grass pitches that they fill in the holes with cow-pat or sand. Really rough on the legs those.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top