A&H

Vignette 2: Butterflies

A rectangular, brown road sign for Old Leaf Playing Fields looms large at the roadside. Gallin vigilantly pulls the car to the left, presses softly on the brake peddle and indicates to turn into the car park. The butterflies, which have occupied his stomach since the moment he woke, begin to flutter just a little more intensely.
‘How will the teams behave? And the spectators for that matter? Ah, whatever! Just go with it, get that first incident dealt with and for **** sake get the big decisions right!’ Gallin muses over the game ahead with an air of futility for no game had ever been predictable. ‘You need to gauge their expectations, book ‘em if you need to, but gauge the game and do what you do.’
Positive self-talk. Gallin knew it was a cliché and sometimes even cringed at his own use of it, but nonetheless indulged himself before every match. He couldn’t help it. He pulls his car into one of many available spaces in the gravel car park, turns off the engine and twists the rear-view mirror so that he can see his deliberate resolute stare.
‘You’ve got nothing to worry about. Think about last week; you bossed the game, you had the respect of the players, they believed in your decision making. You’ve got the club marks and you’ve been getting good feedback from observers. Just do your normal thing.’ Gallin affords himself a slight sneered smile in the mirror. It’s good advice but ultimately pointless. He’d played this game many times before and knew the butterflies would go in time, but not as a result of this talk. Anyway, butterflies are good.

Please share your response on the forum or private message us if you prefer.
When responding to our stories, you might consider the following:
o Do our stories resonate or remind you of a ‘real’ scenario that you have witnessed or been involved in? If so, please share the scenario with us in as much detail as possible.
o Do our stories reflect a problem or issue in football that you think needs to be addressed? If so, please tell us why it is an issue and what you might propose to resolve the issue.
o Conversely, do our stories reflect something that is good about the game – a reason for your continued passion and involvement? If so, please tell us about this.
o Reflecting on your own experiences, is there anything missing from our story that you think is important to highlight? If so, please share with us some of your experiences and interactions with referees, giving as much detail as possible.
We would also welcome more general feedback from the football community about the ‘realness’ of our stories.

Many thanks in advance for your help!
Ben Ives and Ben Clayton
 
The Referee Store
Back
Top