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I had a county cup semi-final with a local team I frequently have and told the manager “Albert, get off the pitch!” An away player said “he knows their names!” to which I replied “yes, because I’ve written it down a lot!” It got a laugh from everyone (except Albert) and showed I wasn’t a “Homer”

However, Sod’s Law then says that someone charges down the clearance and it goes in the goal just after the whistle is blown! This is one of those situations where whatever you do will be wrong. Players moan if we stop the game while an attack is going on, but sometimes there’s always an attack...

Unfortunately that’s one where whatever you do is wrong as far as one team is concerned. If you hadn’t said that there were seconds left then the keeper probably wouldn’t have come up, so the chance wouldn’t have developed. If you’d let it play out the team conceding would have felt cheated...

Yes, I wouldn’t worry about that at all. That just shows the league how sporting they are - they lost heavily and mark the referee low as a result. Adult leagues are expected to explain low marks - usually either below 40 or below 60 - with a written report. I’m not sure about youth leagues...

We had our Premier division cup final on the brand new step 3 pitch yesterday. One of the teams got totally out of control on it, and I’m expecting the club to ban our league from their ground in future as a result. They brought alcohol in, despite the club saying not to as the bar was open...

We’ve got a step 3 and step 5 grounds near me with brand new 3G pitches. Both have restrictions but they are different for each. The other week I was on the step 3 pitch when a club official tried to kick one of my assistants off during the game because he was wearing astros. They are ok on the...

And now you have! That’s the third time, and we all know what happens when you say a name three times!

If it’s the league I think then referees do both lines and middles. Obviously on days when there are fewer officials to cover all the games then the ones on the lines can come off to do middles as necessary but otherwise it’s not unusual for more senior refs to do lines, especially with the top...

A referee has been suspended for using a spectator’s mobile phone to disallow a goal in the Egyptian second division! The home side claimed a handball with the score at 2-1. None of the officials saw anything so he checked footage on a mobile before disallowing the goal. The home team then...

I was AR on a game involving a team from London FA and one from Kent FA, where a player from each was sent off for one incident. Both players appealed (they could do that at the time) but the appeals were both set at the same time, so we had to decline one - it was the Kent League and we were...

It’s a hybrid pitch rather than artificial. There was supposed to be a rugby match there on Wednesday, but this was postponed due to the weather, so this is probably why the lines were still marked rather than being worn and less visible.

Same here, but it’s on the Twitter feed as well if you want watch it

HI Ollie, glad you’re ok and not letting them get to you. Hopefully the CFA will throw the book at them, both for their behaviour and for refusal to give the name.

Like the op I’m also in Kent, and our local youth leagues don‘t tend to have many referees signed up, so clubs have to find their own. Once a club find someone reliable they tend to try to block book so they don’t have to ring round every week. As already said, don’t worry about it. Some youth...

I think the trouble is that swearing is endemic, so this would have come from left field and been totally unexpected. Personally I am really hard on language, especially when aimed at me, but I don’t go looking for trouble - It will find me. I’d have handled this by getting him in and giving...

You need to consider the first bit as well as the bullet points. Ie tackles or challenges “carelessly, recklessly or using excessive force” if the challenge was careless then it’s a penalty, but if there’s no contact then this is a harder sell. From how you’ve described it, goal kick for me...

The difference is that the rule in England (until very recently) has always been that we MUST wear black, so clubs are not allowed to. They still aren’t allowed to but some decide this doesn’t apply to them.

When I was 16 and had just started playing we were due to play against a reserve team. Their first team, from two divisions above ours, didn’t have a fixture so they would be playing instead of the reserves. When we got to the ground it was totally frozen. In addition, one end was covered in...

I’ve done this once, but as has been said context is everything. A few weeks ago I had a really bad tempered county cup game between the top two teams in the league. The away team lost in the semi final last year and expect to win it for the 5th time this time. The home team thought they could...

When I started observing on the SCEFL (step 5 supply league) we had Fisher wearing this kit, and all Kent referees were told specifically that they had to wear black, even when refereeing this team. The FA said that anyone wearing another colour would be suspended with no exceptions and we were...