Dear all,
I just wondered what people thought I should do in response to a rather unusual form of intimidation/undermining. The background is that, on Saturday morning, I had a lively U16s affair, which (just my luck) turned out to be an extremely close, competitive game throughout. Nevertheless, I honestly believe I handled it well. It just so happened that I had officiated the same home team a fortnight earlier, and they had been defeated in the last few minutes by a penalty awarded after a foul by the goalkeeper. This clearly upset them, and yesterday the manager (apparently congenial) came to me before kick off and in our brief he mentioned that I should explain decisions more clearly to his goalkeeper. I took it that this boy had minor cognitive difficulties, which is obviously something useful to draw to a referee's attention. However, almost from kick off, I noticed this manager was much more vocal than I had remembered him. There were so many disputed calls on his side of the pitch, including a penalty claim which I waved away, that towards the end, to my regret, I ignored one 70/30 of which his side was guilty.
That isn't actually the most interesting part; for when I returned home, I checked the club's website and discovered that they had submitted match reports for their last two matches with heavy insinuations against me. Of course, this is water off a duck's back, but I fear it may reinforce a narrative within his team that I am somehow opposed to them. Match control in future may therefore become more difficult.
Finally, I think one of the away coaches (CAR during the match) may have caught wind of this tension, as when returning the flag he accused me of 'dubious' decision-making. I laughed it off at the time because I didn't have a clue to what he was referring and assumed it was his emotional side talking. However, for someone who has effectively agreed to be neutral for the 90 minutes, it was in poor taste. That's the last time I let a coach/manager have any involvement, unless there are no other options.
So, anyway, apologies for the long post. Would any of you let the ref secretary/county know about the reports, or is it just a case of developing a thicker skin and moving on?
Thanks
I just wondered what people thought I should do in response to a rather unusual form of intimidation/undermining. The background is that, on Saturday morning, I had a lively U16s affair, which (just my luck) turned out to be an extremely close, competitive game throughout. Nevertheless, I honestly believe I handled it well. It just so happened that I had officiated the same home team a fortnight earlier, and they had been defeated in the last few minutes by a penalty awarded after a foul by the goalkeeper. This clearly upset them, and yesterday the manager (apparently congenial) came to me before kick off and in our brief he mentioned that I should explain decisions more clearly to his goalkeeper. I took it that this boy had minor cognitive difficulties, which is obviously something useful to draw to a referee's attention. However, almost from kick off, I noticed this manager was much more vocal than I had remembered him. There were so many disputed calls on his side of the pitch, including a penalty claim which I waved away, that towards the end, to my regret, I ignored one 70/30 of which his side was guilty.
That isn't actually the most interesting part; for when I returned home, I checked the club's website and discovered that they had submitted match reports for their last two matches with heavy insinuations against me. Of course, this is water off a duck's back, but I fear it may reinforce a narrative within his team that I am somehow opposed to them. Match control in future may therefore become more difficult.
Finally, I think one of the away coaches (CAR during the match) may have caught wind of this tension, as when returning the flag he accused me of 'dubious' decision-making. I laughed it off at the time because I didn't have a clue to what he was referring and assumed it was his emotional side talking. However, for someone who has effectively agreed to be neutral for the 90 minutes, it was in poor taste. That's the last time I let a coach/manager have any involvement, unless there are no other options.
So, anyway, apologies for the long post. Would any of you let the ref secretary/county know about the reports, or is it just a case of developing a thicker skin and moving on?
Thanks
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