Hello everyone,
I've spent countless hours reading through the forums and have picked up so many tips. I'd like to share my experience from my second game today (a friendly):
So there we have it. To balance it out I was far more confident than my first game, I dealt with players and warned them. One of my strengths is letting the game flow and avoiding blowing for niggles. Other than the above I generally think I had a decent game, especially for my 2nd game. My decisions were questioned and I got some stick but I wonder what they would have thought honestly if they knew it was only my 2nd game (they didn't!).
I've spent countless hours reading through the forums and have picked up so many tips. I'd like to share my experience from my second game today (a friendly):
- After 5 minutes there was a poor tackle, the blue team came in with a high foot and caught the red team in the thigh. It certainly warranted a yellow and possibly a red. The blue player apologised, awknowledged he was late and high. I gave a yellow card but in hindsight it was close to being a straight red.
- A couple of minutes later the red team fouled the blue team late, I saw it as retaliation for the first tackle so gave a caution as well. It was protested by the player who fouled but not really by anyone else. No further incidents until the second half.
- 15 minutes from the end, there is a tackle in the defending penalty area by the striker of the blue team and the red team player takes exception to it (I didn't see anything more than a foul). The red team grabs the striker by the throat but the blue team striker does not relaliate. A little bit of pushing and shoving occured but once it calms down I pull the red player to one side with the captain who was also telling the player he was wrong to grab the other player. Here is where I went wrong. Probably by the letter of the law it should have been a red card but I agreed to send the player to the sin bin and they go down to 10 men for 10 minutes. I know that was wrong as it wasn't dissent (maybe the way he spoke to me for not blowing up for the foul straight away), no one complained from either team and the match carried on. He came back on and acknowledge he was in the wrong after 10 mins, I told him we have 5 mins left and to not give me any further problems. By the letter of the law I was wrong to send him to the sin bin but I thought it was a reasonable solution, I should not have been swayed by the captain.
- And now, my biggest error. The attacker gets the ball before the goalkeeper and the goalkeeper comes steaming out. The striker is put off by his presence and should certainly have scored but put it wide. There was minimal contact just as he prodded the ball away. I gave a penalty. The second I blew the whistle I knew I had made a mistake. The defending team surrounded me but I stuck to my decision and they scored the penalty (that team won by 4 goals so it didn't affect the outcome of the match) but if I could turn back time I know that wasn't a penalty. I made the decision too quickly.
So there we have it. To balance it out I was far more confident than my first game, I dealt with players and warned them. One of my strengths is letting the game flow and avoiding blowing for niggles. Other than the above I generally think I had a decent game, especially for my 2nd game. My decisions were questioned and I got some stick but I wonder what they would have thought honestly if they knew it was only my 2nd game (they didn't!).