Caught in two minds

Yesterday’s game, yellow v blue. Blue goalkeeper sends a long ball forward which is challenged by the yellow centre back and blue striker. They clash heads and yellow defender goes to ground, however, the blue striker has won the flick on and their winger is now one on one with the keeper. I’m now caught in two minds, do I let him take the shot and then stop play, or stop it straight away. I would say there’s no more than 2/3 seconds between clash of heads and the shot. The keeper makes the save, I then immediately blow the whistle but to my horror, another blue player hits it first time from the save exactly on my whistle and puts it into an empty net. I’m then surrounded by players from both teams....

Have I made the right decision? Would you have done it earlier to avoid this scenario?

If there's a clash of heads at grassroots I'm blowing up straight away. Better to be safe than sorry. If you blow up then, it's easy to 'sell' (wrong word here but you get the idea) that your decision is all about safety. If you blow up after the first shot and then they score, as they did in your case, you'll have a much harder time justifying the safety point of view because you didn't blow up in the first place. In my opinion, blow up as soon as it happens, you can't be blamed for anything that happens after that. Ultimately, your concern is for their safety.

If you think there is a chance of a head injury blow straight away.

Mintyref said:

If you think there is a chance of a head injury blow straight away.

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Agreed. But what if you think a defender is faking it to prevent the goal scoring opportunity?

Here's where your alertness and awareness comes into play.

What has caused the player to go down on the ground? How have they gone to the ground, is it "instalments" or have they gone down like a sack of spuds?

Based on those you'll be able to make a split second decision, however if you have any doubt the err on the side of caution. If a player is genuinely badly injured and you've blown up and stopped a goal, players will soon realize that you be done the right thing, if it's not as bad as you thought then it's one of those things and if they are genuinely faking I'm booking them for USB

Martiju said:

Agreed. But what if you think a defender is faking it to prevent the goal scoring opportunity?

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Then you are justified in playing on; just don't have any doubts.......