As you may remember, I had a little moan a couple of weeks ago about a very one sided game.
Well, this morning I reffed my first game since then. Why didn't I keep my mouth shut? Not one, but two mass confrontations, resulting in four red cards. Added to that, two yellows and more misconduct reports than I can count.
U18 Yellow v. Blue. Pretty innocuous first half with not much going on. Into the second half and mass confrontation number one. It came out of absolutely nowhere; nothing challenge that I blew up for and as I moved towards it, the two players just went for each other. They got in each other's faces and yellow threw a punch, to which blue retaliated. Cue team mates piling in to drag them away etc. I got the players isolated and dismissed them both.
The second one was pretty similar, yellow the aggressor again. Another pretty normal foul, but yellow just reacted ridiculously; they both had each other round the throats and yellow threw a punch AGAIN. It took four yellow players to drag him away. By this point, all the coaches were on the pitch too. I just stood back and tried to take everything in. Isolated both players again and dismissed them.
Between the two however, was one of the most ridiculous things I've ever seen. The blue CAR (parent) actually put his hands on the yellow striker and pushed him. It was from a corner, I was already in position on the edge of the box when the CAR walked over to the taker, and they appeared to argue over where the ball was. I started to jog over and as I did, they were arguing and the CAR out his hand on the striker and pushed him. Pathetic! I obviously asked the manager to remove him. That's really got me annoyed, I couldn't believe it. I cautioned the yellow striker, which in hindsight, I'm not sure was right, but this was a couple of minutes after the first incident so I hadn't regained my composure.
Not sure what went on at the end, but there was an argument between the away team (yes, all of them) and the yellow manager. Obviously, the blue manager blamed me and said his players were only defending themselves (so? They both raised their hands, simple as). He's going to report me to the league and the FA apparently. Yellow manager accepted the reds and apologised for his players.
I've always dreaded having a mass confrontation, but I'm very happy with how I dealt with them and happy that my decision to dismiss the four players was correct. I was virtually on top of them so tried to intervene but quickly stepped back when I realised I couldn't. Got the correct players and just blasted on the whistle until it broke up.
I still can't believe what the CAR did.
I'll take an easy game every day of the week, it's days like this that make me wonder why I bother!
Well, this morning I reffed my first game since then. Why didn't I keep my mouth shut? Not one, but two mass confrontations, resulting in four red cards. Added to that, two yellows and more misconduct reports than I can count.
U18 Yellow v. Blue. Pretty innocuous first half with not much going on. Into the second half and mass confrontation number one. It came out of absolutely nowhere; nothing challenge that I blew up for and as I moved towards it, the two players just went for each other. They got in each other's faces and yellow threw a punch, to which blue retaliated. Cue team mates piling in to drag them away etc. I got the players isolated and dismissed them both.
The second one was pretty similar, yellow the aggressor again. Another pretty normal foul, but yellow just reacted ridiculously; they both had each other round the throats and yellow threw a punch AGAIN. It took four yellow players to drag him away. By this point, all the coaches were on the pitch too. I just stood back and tried to take everything in. Isolated both players again and dismissed them.
Between the two however, was one of the most ridiculous things I've ever seen. The blue CAR (parent) actually put his hands on the yellow striker and pushed him. It was from a corner, I was already in position on the edge of the box when the CAR walked over to the taker, and they appeared to argue over where the ball was. I started to jog over and as I did, they were arguing and the CAR out his hand on the striker and pushed him. Pathetic! I obviously asked the manager to remove him. That's really got me annoyed, I couldn't believe it. I cautioned the yellow striker, which in hindsight, I'm not sure was right, but this was a couple of minutes after the first incident so I hadn't regained my composure.
Not sure what went on at the end, but there was an argument between the away team (yes, all of them) and the yellow manager. Obviously, the blue manager blamed me and said his players were only defending themselves (so? They both raised their hands, simple as). He's going to report me to the league and the FA apparently. Yellow manager accepted the reds and apologised for his players.
I've always dreaded having a mass confrontation, but I'm very happy with how I dealt with them and happy that my decision to dismiss the four players was correct. I was virtually on top of them so tried to intervene but quickly stepped back when I realised I couldn't. Got the correct players and just blasted on the whistle until it broke up.
I still can't believe what the CAR did.
I'll take an easy game every day of the week, it's days like this that make me wonder why I bother!
