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Another crazy week in football has passed and I still have a mountain of reports to complete before taking the rest of the week off. Last Monday Jamie, David and I planned out the next Basic Course for New Referees being held at County HQ in October. This one is slightly different in that both of the RDOs and David are not available on the first week, so as Course Leader, I'll have more work to do. Tuesday saw me take a trip to Savile Park in Halifax to watch a new referee in his first open age 11 v 11 game. Michael was on the course in May and this was his first opportunity to put into practice the things he learned. He put in a good stint and writing his coaching feedback report was easy to fill with compliments. On Wednesday I...

So much for taking a rest as things kicked off on the unofficial forum used by players, managers, etc. involved in the local Sunday League. It was just what I needed in the week that saw me take a trip to Birmingham with work (horrible journey back along the M42) and advised that I need to make a trip to Newcastle to chair an "important" meeting. Much of my time now seems to be spent in meetings at work. Out of work I managed to finalise the assessments from Monday's game and the coaching report from Sunday's, just in time to go out and assess a local promotion candidate on Saturday. It was a good old fashioned cup tie and there was plenty for the man in the middle to deal with. It was a similar story on Sunday as the game went to...

A midweek post because it's another busy week and a lot has happened over the last two days. I headed to Hemsworth on Tuesday to watch a recently promoted referee and enjoyed his participation in a tense local derby. I did well to get to the ground as early as 70 minutes before kick off. I punched in the wrong club on the satnav and in the deepening gloom of an early dusk, I realised in the last mile that I was heading to the wrong ground. A few deft turns later and I was back on my way, but this time to the wrong side of the ground! I re-negotiated the side streets and found, to my relief that I was right outside the club house. Wednesday's trip to Sheffield saw me visit the home of the team I watched get battered just a couple of...

The winter's chill is beginning to set in and this weekend's assessments were both conducted wearing my big padded jacket. It wasn't too bad out at Otley as the sunshine came out at half time but it was a bitter wind blowing around Throstle Nest as I assessed the referee on the FA Women's Premier League game taking place there today. The game was settled by a hat trick from the away team's centre forward who displayed some fantastic speed to outpace the home defence. Although the home team had equalised after her first goal, her second came within a few seconds of the equaliser and it was a long and busy afternoon for both defences. The trainers of both teams were also kept busy particularly after a nasty clash of heads late in the...

It never rains but it pours as just as things begin getting busy in football, work also gets busy too. Last week saw me at the Referee's Association meeting on Monday where we heard that two County referees have been suspended for not sending in their disciplinary reports. I also had to pass on the news about the breaches of Respect Code of Conduct. It wasn't a jolly meeting. Tuesday's meeting of the Sunday League Committee became even more sombre as we dealt with clubs who have fielded ineligible players. They were all fined and some were warned they faced point deductions for their actions. Then it was time to discuss the Respect infringements and the committee seemed happy with the course of action suggested. On Wednesday I had to...

It's only 6 days since my last post but I've packed a fair amount into them. I had a night off last Thursday from everything and it was needed before a busy weekend. On Friday I travelled with work to our office in Runcorn before heading to Wakefield to carry out my 18th assessment of the season. The game was challenging and the referee was suffering from a lack of match practice having recently come back from his honeymoon. On Saturday a trip to Bradford to watch a female Supply League referee. I found a few pointers to help her develop and she acknowledged them with grace, commenting that she had identified one herself and was working on it. Sunday was full of stress as I led the first day of a course for 23 new referees. There...

I'm finding there are more and more situations in football and real life where I want to make a comment but considering my current position as Supply League Assessor in a well regarded Supply League and Level 2 Referee Tutor, with ambitions to progress further in both areas, I don't feel able to in case it is misinterpreted or is construed as some sort of semi-official comment. This blog became a little bland after the incident 3 seasons ago where a post was used by a club as part of their defence against charges brought by the County FA. It became even more bland when I retired from refereeing almost a year ago and now that I am busy most nights with football, I have no time to post anymore. So this blog is retiring and I may post...

Normal service has been resumed ... After injuring my Achilles on June 26, I decided that a 3 session lay off was enough and I needed to test the injury to see if it would hold up. With a speed endurance session having caused the injury I decided it would be best not to try one of those again so I thought a basic run for 12 minutes, walk for 5 minutes and run for 12 minutes would give it a reasonable test. The field was a little crowded with our usual field occupied by an open age ladies team in one quadrant and an open age men's team in another. On the adjacent rugby field another open age men's team were setting up to train and in the top left hand corner of that field two junior teams were going through their paces. So rather than...

Broken but not defeated ... With this being the 4th of our sessions I expected my fitness to be improving and according to the heart rate monitor chart, it is ... but I still can't run far or fast. Tonight Paul and I were joined by Neil who is the father of a young referee I helped to train a couple of seasons ago (hey Luke!). James F hasn't been in touch and James P is worried he has shin splints again so he took my advice and is resting up. I wasn't in the best of moods having suffered a disappointment earlier in the day. I had a cramping sensation between my shoulders which I can't help feeling relates to a car crash I had last November and the subsequent whiplash. Anyway, I needed an exercise where I could just run and leave my...

Le pant, le phew, le pant ... With James F not turning out and James P working late it was left to Paul and I to run ourselves silly tonight. I wanted a toughish session which built on last weeks openers so I decided to go far, middle and near ... after our usual warm up of a couple of laps of the field and some shuttles. Then starting at the goal line, we ran to the edge of the near penalty area, ran back to the start point, ran to the halfway line, ran back to the start point, ran to the far goal line and ran back to the start point. Time taken 1:55, so we had a 1 minute rest. We repeated the same exercise again but the time has stretched to 1:57, so we still had a 1 minute rest before going through the cycle again. Now this time...

But I don't run with my shoulders ... The madness has infected another and we were joined by James F tonight taking the gang to four. The temperature gauge in the car said it was 23C when I parked up and I was glad I'd downed a litre of water at work during the afternoon. Well it seemed like a good idea but made me that little bit heavier and slower (any excuse). After we had completed our warm up I noticed my heart rate monitor couldn't decide whether I was dead (no heartbeat) or gunning like an over-revved car (121% of maximum) and it kept locking at a % every couple of minutes. I think I left it in the heat of the conservatory for too long. When I got home I soaked it for about 5 minutes and suddenly it's reading correctly again...

Also known as back in the saddle. My wife went on a diet recently to kickstart getting trim so she looks good on my daughter's wedding photographs in September (it was very successful too!). With the same thought in mind I decided I would begin training again. I never thought it would be so tough and yet so easy. I met with James and Paul on the field we've used for the last 3 years and set up a simple exercise. After a warm up lap and shuttles, we ran at a pace which gave our hearts, legs and lungs an introductory workout. We ran for 6 minutes, walked for 3 minutes, ran for 5 minutes (my mistake as I miscalculated when we should stop) walked for 3 minutes, ran for 6 minutes 15 seconds, walked for 3 minutes and ran for 6 minutes. I...

The FA should not let Pep Guardiola leave London. They should offer him the moon and the stars to keep him in England and offer him the role of FA Technical Director in charge of all Coaching Development. Last night his team demonstrated that "knocking it high/long for the big lad to knock down for the nippy boy to run on to/hold until the midfield cavalry arrive" or the "high ball over the top for the nippy lad to chase" are just not good enough. Sure these skills work well for players who may not have the technical ability/guile to pass the ball short and move so the team can move upfield as a unit, always in possession, always frustrating the opposition. Playing percentage football doesn't guarantee success, neither does possession...

Isn't he on the telly? After a long afternoon cooking, eating and drinking to celebrate Father's Day I wasn't feeling very chipper today at work and even went as far as breaking my new rule ... I drank coffee on a training day. The snack machine also pinched my cash as I tried to buy a Twix (other chocolate bars are available) but I ignored the omen and went for a Double Decker instead ... and regretted it later when I felt queasy during training. I arrived right on time to find Mr H (Football League ref who makes occasional appearances on the Football League Show) and Ricky had joined Steve and they were doing a high intensity session. James P had also turned up very early and was part way through his exercise. This left Paul, Neil...

Did someone mention drought? Since it was announced that much of eastern England was facing drought like conditions it's hardly stopped raining. So tonight it was a case of beat the rain. We started with our usual 5 minute run followed by shuttles for the warm up. Our shuttles involve jogging from the goal line to the edge of the penalty area and back (distance 33m in total), then on the way out to the edge we do a series of exercises ... side to side left foot leading, side to side right foot leading, high knees, bum kicks, two steps to the left then two steps to the right, finishing up with the hamstring walk. Each time the exercises are done on the way out to the edge of the penalty area and then we jog back to the start point on...

It felt like a good time to change again, so I'm now found under referee-inactive.blogspot.com ... seems very appropriate

Three's company and 25 is a football training session. Just as I was about to leave work the heavens opened and it rained heavily for at least 30 minutes. The drive home saw me passing through a large number of deep puddles and I thought the field we use might be under water. Well it wasn't quite, but it was a lot softer than it has been so I switched from trainers to boots. Steve and Eddie had already started training and were doing fartleks around the field, running one side, walking three, running two, walking two, running three, walking one and finishing by running all four sides. I'd considered that as well but with a local football team setting up a training session in the top half of the field, we (Neil, Paul and I) would have...

And then there were four (sort of) ... It's not been a good day as I received an email confirming I'd been unsuccessful in applying for a job I really wanted and the promised feedback wasn't delivered either, so I'm no wiser as to where I went wrong. I'm hoping that it was just a badly constructed application rather than my skills and experience falling short of the required standard. My second dose of rejection came as I followed up on a letter advising me I'd been identified as a match for someone needing a bone marrow donation. Now for some the thought of needles being inserted in their back to drain some fluid out of their spine and the after effects in terms of the pain supposedly associated with the procedure put people off...

After straining my Achilles last Monday I took Wednesday and Friday's sessions off to give it time to recover. I had another reason for that as I was working on the first of the 2011-12 season's Basic Courses for New Referees over Saturday and Sunday. 18 candidates turned up, most under the age of 16 and that brought some challenges but we overcame them. The outdoor sessions worked well, even though we had reduced the number of tutors from 4 to 3. Indoors, matters were even more straight forward. The only problem was the heat. It was the hottest and sunniest day of the year. I've suffered from sunstroke and heatstroke before but combining symptoms with a bad reaction to what I ate on Saturday evening (spicy platter from ASDA...

Could try harder ... Not really something that could have been said about my efforts last night on the field as I really put in a hard shift. It seems unfortunately that it was a little too much for my frail (ha ha) 113Kg frame and I've strained my Achilles. It means it's painful to walk and it seems likely that tomorrow's training will have to consist of me watching other people train. It has improved as the day has progressed so may loosen up enough for me to be able to do some light jogging but it seems that high impact work is out for a few days.