The Ref Stop

Your Card Stats

Dicky Herts

Dicky Herts

Member
Question on cards stats. I'm a happy L5, Been reffing 3.5 seasons. My middles are majority senior county league prem men's (step7) and good level youth boys mostly 16s and 18s. This season across 58 middles:
Yellows 97. Average 1.7 per match.
Plus dissent sin bins: 3.
Reds: 9. Average 0.9 per match.
Interested if anyone else keeps record? If you use REFSIX they are in your stats section.
Just curious - How do these compare?
 
The Ref Stop
Hi mate, this is my first season from L7 to L6 on 6-5, i'm sure mine will come across with a pinch of salt.. 😂

44 Middles across Women's (regional/county leagues), county mens (Div 3 and 4)

43 Yellow Cards, 9 red cards (of which 5 are second YCs), 14 of the 43 yellow cards are sin bins.
0.98 YC per game
Every 1 in 3 games had a sin bin

In all honesty, I only totted this up as another ref I know asked what I was on for the season..
 
I don't log my cards on refsix but tried to keep them pretty up to date in my signature, probably missed some but from what I can remember first full season as a 4 has been:
16 Middles 21 lines
68 Yellows 4.25 per game
4 Reds 0.25 per game
4 Pens

Always had a spell of 2-3 games with 1 or 2 and then I hit double figures twice this season. One of these 2 was my highest club marks all season so can't have been too bad.
 
L5-L4 promotion pathway, this season, successfully reached L4 last week! 🎉

25/26 - Level 5 to 4
24 middles, 22 lines
56 yellows (2.33 per game)
2 reds (0.08 per game)

It's interesting seeing my cards per game count slowly increasing with more experience.

Level 6 (1.45 yellows per game)
Level 7 (1.33 yellows per game)
 
This season - 34 middles, 54 yellows, 3 reds.

In total - 532 middles, 664 yellows, 68 reds (that includes friendlies and my pre-L4 seasons, which pull my averages down a bit!)
 
Spreadsheet heaven this sort of thread!

First season at L4
21 middles - 63 cautions, 8 playing dismissals, 1 technical area dismissal
Dismissal reasons: DOGSO (H), DOGSO, SFP x2, VC x3, OFFINABUS, Delaying the Opponents Restart
16 lines

Highest attendance just under 1800.
 
Not as many matches this season thanks to children and moving house but…

Middles: 16
🟨 x 38
🟥 x 3 (2 x S7, 1 x DOGSO-H)
 
No stats to add to the conversation but I am a bit surprised about the actual number of middles being achieved by levels 5 and above, are there too many of you at those levels compared to available games or have you no connection with lower level leagues now?

I never reached those heady levels when active but regularly saw levels 4 and 3 active in our local Saturday and Sunday leagues.

I think in my most active years I would have been around 60+ middles and about 10 asst ref appointments in county and local leagues with asst duties midweek in higher level leagues.
 
Hilly1618 said:
No stats to add to the conversation but I am a bit surprised about the actual number of middles being achieved by levels 5 and above, are there too many of you at those levels compared to available games or have you no connection with lower level leagues now?

I never reached those heady levels when active but regularly saw levels 4 and 3 active in our local Saturday and Sunday leagues.

I think in my most active years I would have been around 60+ middles and about 10 asst ref appointments in county and local leagues with asst duties midweek in higher level leagues.
Click to expand...
In my own personal circumstances, I find/found midweek AR duties much harder to come across, therefore I had to dedicate certain Saturdays to middles, and others to AR duties to satisfy the promotion critera. Midweek fixtures increased toward the end of the season with a backlog of fixtures. Sundays I dedicate to MDC when I'm available.

60+ games a season and 10+ AR sounds very intense.
 
sunnycrofter said:
In my own personal circumstances, I find/found midweek AR duties much harder to come across, therefore I had to dedicate certain Saturdays to middles, and others to AR duties to satisfy the promotion critera. Midweek fixtures increased toward the end of the season with a backlog of fixtures. Sundays I dedicate to MDC when I'm available.

60+ games a season and 10+ AR sounds very intense.
Click to expand...
Just Saturday afternoons and Sunday mornings. It is a few years back and I’m sure other refs were doing more games, including some youth football on Sat mornings and Sunday afternoons as well!

I’m sure you are right that the criteria for promotion impacts .
 
In my stats above I only included matches at “my level” and left out college, youth and grassroots.

From 1st July 2025 to today is easily 120+ including AR/4O
 
Hilly1618 said:
No stats to add to the conversation but I am a bit surprised about the actual number of middles being achieved by levels 5 and above, are there too many of you at those levels compared to available games or have you no connection with lower level leagues now?

I never reached those heady levels when active but regularly saw levels 4 and 3 active in our local Saturday and Sunday leagues.

I think in my most active years I would have been around 60+ middles and about 10 asst ref appointments in county and local leagues with asst duties midweek in higher level leagues.
Click to expand...
While I was active at 4 I was getting 20-25 middles (Step 5/6, FL Youth Alliance, FA comps and County Cups), and 15-25 lines (Step 3/4, U18 PL, FA comps and County Cups) per season, and doing about another 20-30 friendlies and lower level games. Fewest games I did in one full season at 4 was 65 (had one season cut short by injury, one cut short by COVID, then one cut short because of a heart problem), most I did was 78 (also did 86 the season I went 5-4).
 
At level 5 in my area there are no open age Sunday leagues and week night opportunities are only for those seeking 5-4. So realistically you’d struggle to hit 50+ even if you packed out pre-season and the summer nights
 
Midlans Football League has 3 officials down to "Step 9" and 3 officials on the u21 League on a Saturday morning.
Becoming increasingly hard to get enough officials to cover all the lines though.
 
This was my 25/26 Season. From 1st July (first friendly) to 16th May (last game):

🟥 = Referee
🟩 = Assistant
🟦 = Mentor/MDC

Screenshot 2026-05-27 at 22.37.59.png
 
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