Difficult Fixture

Quite an odd one today, U16 Cup group stage match.

First half was pretty civil, one yellow for the visiting away side who have also managed to take the lead.

First 20 minutes of the second half are also pretty plain sailing, but seemingly suddenly something clicks in the away side as they increase their levels of aggression massively (survival instincts of defending the one goal lead perhaps?) They pick up six yellow cards in very quick succession - three for non-abusive dissent, two for late challenges and one for kicking the ball away. None of the bookings seem to deter them at all and it's weird because the aggression is totally one-sided, the home side were not reciprocating in the slightest, but the away sides kept pushing the boundaries. In the last 10 minutes there's a straight red for abusive language aimed towards me and then in the final couple of minutes another straight red for a horror lunge. They finish with 9 men, but just about manage to hang on.

Very heated between the two sets of coaches at the end of the game - the home side (rightfully so) pretty dismayed at the behaviour of the visitors. Away side management claim that the home team were just as bad even though that is flagrantly false, they're totally shameless and unapologetic as to the behaviour of their own players, which probably explains why they behaved that way in the first place. I keep in ear shot in case things escalate any further and they eventually go their separate ways.

Home side were very gracious towards me in spite of the manner of the defeat. I still wonder if I could have done anything better when it came to control of it considering it was such a concentrated period of play where things kicked off, I absolutely did use my cards to the right extent whenever they were warranted and I'm pretty sure if I had a word with the management of the away side that they would be completely unreceptive considering their attitude throughout and their shirking of responsibility come the end.

It's a weird one because usually in these sorts of aggressive games, it is reciprocal and both sides get stuck in. But in this case the home team were passive considering the circumstances and it was completely one sided on the part of the away team. I felt sympathy for them having played so honestly and to get nothing out of it, they didn't pick up a single booking in the whole game and must have only fouled about 3 or 4 times altogether.

Away team will hopefully be hit with a considerable fine for racking up 7 bookings and 2 reds!

Were Sin Bins in use? If so, did you use them for the dissent cautions?

ChasObserverRefDeveloper said:

Were Sin Bins in use? If so, did you use them for the dissent cautions?

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No sin bins, I'm outside of the UK

A couple of things to consider… did you engage with the captain of the away team at all? Would it have helped to have a real come to Jesus discussion once the second card had been racked up for dissent? Where there opportunities to take more time out of the game when it felt like control was waning? (note-this may not be relevant if there was no real temperature to the game, but that seems odd to me). Overall, it sounds like you did a good job. Well done for managing the technical areas at full time. Sometimes teams just come intent on causing misery and this is difficult to manage effectively. My normal go to here is all fouls called, no (minimal) advantage played, greater focus on persistent small(er) infringements, intentionally long breaks in play and the captain being very clear that I am very unhappy about how things are going.

Sounds fun!

3 yellows and a red for things said to you… hmm… tell us more…

RefRyanAus said:

A couple of things to consider… did you engage with the captain of the away team at all? Would it have helped to have a real come to Jesus discussion once the second card had been racked up for dissent? Where there opportunities to take more time out of the game when it felt like control was waning? (note-this may not be relevant if there was no real temperature to the game, but that seems odd to me). Overall, it sounds like you did a good job. Well done for managing the technical areas at full time. Sometimes teams just come intent on causing misery and this is difficult to manage effectively. My normal go to here is all fouls called, no (minimal) advantage played, greater focus on persistent small(er) infringements, intentionally long breaks in play and the captain being very clear that I am very unhappy about how things are going.

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Had a word with the captain just as the second half antics were beginning to ramp up, but he seemed much more intent on being a cheerleader for more of it and got himself booked for dissent as well.

The game was generally very stop-start and quite slowly paced which is why the whole thing was so baffling to me, completely one-sided with zero retaliation from the home side, just a lot of teenagers intent on taking advantage of the apathetic managers and raising hell I think. Game was quite low on quality and any chances whatsoever, probably not helped by the fact there was quite a gusty wind.

Good advice as well for game management that I will take into account for next time, thank you!

santa sangria said:

Sounds fun!

3 yellows and a red for things said to you… hmm… tell us more…

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Two of the yellows were for indirect and impersonal swearing after decisions, another one was for a particularly in-your-face appeal that I felt overstepped the respectable boundaries.

Red card was after an away player shouted "You effing r-word ref" towards me after I adjudged him to have run the ball out of play over the goal line, easiest OFFINABUS you'll ever see.

Sounds like you managed it quite well, especially the TA's at full time. As @RefRyanAus said, in this sort of game, when it gets to this point, just blow for every single foul. Ignore advantages unless they are staring you in the face as an obvious goal-scoring opportunity. Just slow the game right down.

@Lucarelli99 - One thing I found help when the game was getting away was to "Strangle the game"... By that I blew for everything, no advantage; blade of grass accurate for free-kicks; and generally made it an unpleasant game of football to play in. If the teams moaned at me, i simply said "when they wanted to play football and not moan at me, I would let them". if the want to continue to moan, then we will just get though this match to the 90th minute and go home.