A&H

Not my best game

O

Ori

Active Member
So I’ve had the privilege of reffing u18 girls finals and u16 boys final over here in Herts.

Girls final. No issue. 1 card for kicking the ball away, but otherwise a lovely afternoon. So nice to each other.

Boys final was an oh boy!
I state that this wasn’t my best day ended up handing out 3 red cards.
All started heating up when my assistant flagged for a penalty. I thought he got the ball, but the assistant said he did get the ball, but only after going through the player. I went with my assistant as I believe he had a better view and I trust him.

Obviously that heated things.
Every decision was questioned. Lots of pulling and little fouls.
Early in second half. Bad challenge and scuffle starts right in front of my second assistant. We discuss and we both agree on violent conduct for one player, but we both focused on him and missed the opposing player to give a yellow. Can’t randomly book a player.

Second red was towards end of match when player barged another player off the ball leading with elbow. I deemed it violent conduct and red card.

Anyway. “Home” team who played most of second half with 10 men won the game. Manager came up to me and end thanked me and said he deserved the red and had no issues.

A losing player came up to me and called me a “effin c…”. Another red.

I felt I didn’t control the game well enough, but have learnt a lot.
 
The Referee Store
Good on you for posting what you considered a rough outing. It's easy to share when we do well most of the time but hard when we don't feel like we did the game justice.

I'd echo what others have already said here. Sounds like you did alright!

All started heating up when my assistant flagged for a penalty. I thought he got the ball, but the assistant said he did get the ball, but only after going through the player. I went with my assistant as I believe he had a better view and I trust him.
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I was an AR recently in semi-pro game and correctly flagged for a handball in the box around the penalty area. Technically this is outside my area to call but the referee looked at me for help so I went for it.

Although we got the call right, me making a call that probably should be taken by the center does take away a bit of his authority. Not my intention at all and I'm still glad we got the call right but the fact remains. Can be a hard situation for the center. Nothing else to do at that point but stay confident and forward-focused.

Every decision was questioned. Lots of pulling and little fouls.
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The moment every referee knows things are getting out of control haha. Time to slow the game way down and go back to basics. Call more simple fouls and stop the game from flowing as much to try to regain control. Also no need to let the game restart until you feel it's safe too; fine to not allow a restart for 30 seconds to talk with players, etc.

We discuss and we both agree on violent conduct for one player, but we both focused on him and missed the opposing player to give a yellow. Can’t randomly book a player.
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This has happened to all of us. No big deal. Just learn from it and next time be more ready to remember 2 players & jersey numbers to give out the correct sanctions.

Lastly, I'll say that in most cases, the players decide the state of the game. We can only do so much as referees to engage in game and player management. At the end of the day, if players want to go hard, that's their decision. Sounds like you got all your reds right and sometimes that's just how it goes. Some things are out of your control and like I and others have mentioned above, sounds like you did pretty well all things considered. On to the next one! 👏
 
Ori said:
Yeah I need to work on using the sin bins more.
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I learnt effective use of the sin bin after having a game like yours when I used none. My Eyes opened to how powerful a weapon it can be
 
Ori said:
I state that this wasn’t my best day ended up handing out 3 red cards.
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This is the type of thinking we need take out of everyone's impression on an indication of a bad performance. Even referees think if the card count is high, game/player management is poor. This is absolutely untrue.

Yes you made some mistakes. I would have said you had a bad game if you made those mistakes in the U18 game. But for the U16 game given how difficult the game was, I say maybe you didn't have the best game but you should still be happy with that performance.
 
Just an advice on instruction the AR and how you manage a situation when AR thinks it's a pen but you thin it's not. Not a lot in your post on the process you followed but clearly that gave you grief. Think about what you can change in there to improve.

My instruction to my AR is avoid any sort of signaling until I look at you. I only do that if I have doubts. A simple discreet nod or shake of head is all I need if I look at you.

The key is to ensure everyone thinks and knows you are the boss of the team and make all the decisions. Your body language is very important here.
 
one said:
This is the type of thinking we need take out of everyone's impression on an indication of a bad performance. Even referees think if the card count is high, game/player management is poor. This is absolutely untrue.
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Agree it can be untrue. But I also think that any game with a high card count is cause for self-analysis. Sometimes a high card count does flow from mistakes we made. And the goal is to learn from our mistakes, as @Ori is working to do.
 
socal lurker said:
Agree it can be untrue. But I also think that any game with a high card count is cause for self-analysis. Sometimes a high card count does flow from mistakes we made. And the goal is to learn from our mistakes, as @Ori is working to do.
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And sometimes there are no cards even if the referee makes a mistake or high card count without the referee making a notable mistake.

We do reflect on all games and learn from them, more so from our mistakes. I made the point because it sounded like the OP was somewhat blaming himself for the send offs and/or he had a bad games because he had the send offs. I think we can agree on the high card count being the players fault not the referees despite the mistake.

I would add thou if a referee is consistently having a higher card count than others referees in the same league, perhaps a change of refereeing style or a change of league is in order, but I diverge.
 
one said:
And sometimes there are no cards even if the referee makes a mistake or high card count without the referee making a notable mistake.

We do reflect on all games and learn from them, more so from our mistakes. I made the point because it sounded like the OP was somewhat blaming himself for the send offs and/or he had a bad games because he had the send offs. I think we can agree on the high card count being the players fault not the referees despite the mistake.

I would add thou if a referee is consistently having a higher card count than others referees in the same league, perhaps a change of refereeing style or a change of league is in order, but I diverge.
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I don't think we are disagreeing on anything here. I agree that we should reflect on each game, but some demand more thought than others. Lots of cards is one of the things that should lead to extra focus on a particular game.
 
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Ori said:
So I’ve had the privilege of reffing u18 girls finals and u16 boys final over here in Herts.

Girls final. No issue. 1 card for kicking the ball away, but otherwise a lovely afternoon. So nice to each other.

Boys final was an oh boy!
I state that this wasn’t my best day ended up handing out 3 red cards.
All started heating up when my assistant flagged for a penalty. I thought he got the ball, but the assistant said he did get the ball, but only after going through the player. I went with my assistant as I believe he had a better view and I trust him.

Obviously that heated things.
Every decision was questioned. Lots of pulling and little fouls.
Early in second half. Bad challenge and scuffle starts right in front of my second assistant. We discuss and we both agree on violent conduct for one player, but we both focused on him and missed the opposing player to give a yellow. Can’t randomly book a player.

Second red was towards end of match when player barged another player off the ball leading with elbow. I deemed it violent conduct and red card.

Anyway. “Home” team who played most of second half with 10 men won the game. Manager came up to me and end thanked me and said he deserved the red and had no issues.

A losing player came up to me and called me a “effin c…”. Another red.

I felt I didn’t control the game well enough, but have learnt a lot.
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I'm also in Hertfordshire
I've had two games with eye-watering card count
Both games offered up some learning points that I doubt I'll ever forget
One game in which I missed a clear advantage. The aggrieved team were, for want of a better word, 'aggrieved'. They just couldn't and didn't let go of the injustice for the remaining hour. Whether Observers like it or not, my whistle has tended to be 'delayed' ever since, although I know there are circumstances in which you gotta get on the blower sharpish. I'll never again address more that one Team Official at a time. I always drag one of them down the touchline now, as you won't get any joy speaking to a wall of angry faces
The second game was challenging throughout and I was 2 minutes of normal time away from having had a good game. Alas, a scuffle broke out behind my back and my AR indicated VC for two of the combatants from one side, but only a AAA C1 for the opposition. The injustice led to another three reds before we left the FOP. Never again will I accommodate such an imbalance of justice resulting from Mass Confrontation, even if indicated by an AR

So in my experience of 300 games or so, high card count is often an indicator that the Ref could have done better. Not least because there's a lot we can do in terms of 'preventative Refereeing'. That said however, like last night, sometimes even the best Refs will be chucking them round like confetti
 
I
one said:
And sometimes there are no cards even if the referee makes a mistake or high card count without the referee making a notable mistake.

We do reflect on all games and learn from them, more so from our mistakes. I made the point because it sounded like the OP was somewhat blaming himself for the send offs and/or he had a bad games because he had the send offs. I think we can agree on the high card count being the players fault not the referees despite the mistake.

I would add thou if a referee is consistently having a higher card count than others referees in the same league, perhaps a change of refereeing style or a change of league is in order, but I diverge.
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Thanks for all the support. I felt bad as I felt that inlet the game get out of hand by making certain calls. It’s silly really as I believe the calls were right in the vast majority of cases.

Things I have learnt and will try to implement to my game is better use of sin bin. Cut out the back chat. Moaning to me about decisions will get a sim bin for dissent if it keeps going after I speak to captains.
I will also use my AR better in terms of giving them better guidelines on what I’m looking for.
In this case though. I gave a penalty after my ar flagged. I didn’t think it was a penalty as it looked like he got the ball, but my AR had a better view and said he went through the player to get to the ball. So I believe the correct decision was made. However this decision raised the temperature of the game significantly.

I have to say after watching the final the other night, I feel a bit better. That was a tough game to ref.
 
Having read this thread, seen the Europa final and from my own reflections over the last year, I have decided that I am going much firmer and sooner to sin bins for the next season.

Rather than thinking "I can manage this" it will now be one of the early steps in that management.
 
For the moment, take the red cards out of this. 2x violent conduct, those are mandatory/ inescapable. That’s a decision by a player to behave so. Likewise the post-match red card. He could’ve given you a gob full of dissent but chose the most offensive term he could. And can’t complain when he gets a ban.

What else, if anything stands out as saying “I wasn’t so good today”.

The penalty? Teamwork is important and a judgement call. 50/50 either way. Learning point for certain, but wrong call/bad call? Not as important.

What do you have beyond self criticism and self doubt?
 
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