The Ref Stop

First 11v11 game

DazN

DazN

Well-Known Member
Level 7 Referee
Just done my first 11v11 game (U15s) at very late notice as a local team had no ref turn up.

So quickly grabbed all my things and headed out.

Game went well despite my nerves. I managed to keep up with play and the game went by with very little drama until a late frustration-type challenge by an away player in the second half after the ball got taken him. I called the lad over and told him he was walking a very fine line, but failed to give him a YC (which it probably should have been).

The home team then committed a late tackle on the edge of the area for which I gave a DFK, but no YC (in my mind I was thinking about the one I had failed to give earlier).

So we get to the last knockings of the game and players are asking how long (thirty seconds) when the home team concede a corner. Ball comes in and is cleared away after a scramble for another corner. Away keeper shouts how long ref? and I say seconds, so he decides to come up for the corner. Ball gets played in, another scramble...Away Keeper tries a bicycle kick which is saved, another scramble, before the home team launch it out of their area and over my head.

Having made my mind up that that is time, I blow up.... As I'm blowing I turn to see the ball drop onto the halfway line straight to the home team forward who boots it straight downfield into the keeperless goal.

Pandemonium....Home team players distraught shouting that I can't do that, away players relieved saying I can. Coaches in each others' faces.

What a disaster. I felt / feel terrible that in my inexperience I didn't check to see if anything could develop.

Turns out the home team could have saved themselves from relegation with a win. (they still can)

How do you get over the disappointment and feeling that you let yourself and everyone else down??
 
The Ref Stop
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 instead of the team who scored the disallowed goal, and you’d still have felt terrible. You did nothing wrong, but we are our own worst judges on occasions like this.

I had this many years ago and allowed it to carry on when the keeper came up, and a goal was scored against him. That was the winning goal, meaning they finished second in the league, when the other team would have won the league if they’d won the game. As it was they finished third.
The only thing you can do is to tell them what’s happening. Either “time for this kick and no more” or “if you’re coming up keeper there’s 30 seconds left” Then if he concedes it’s his fault, not yours, and the same if you stop play before a chance develops up the other end. Alternatively, “last play lads” and stop the next time the ball goes out of play.
As referee you‘re sole judge of time, so when you think time is up, it’s up.
 
It’s a tough one to take for the losing team, from the other team if the allowed it and on you either way. No matter what you said, no one would listen, you can of course call time as the ball is in the air on the way into the goal if time was up (not recommended by the way)
 
socal lurker said:
You decided time was up. That means time was up. You did nothing wrong at all.
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This. At the end of halves, referees will usually give one last attacking opportunity. Once that opportunity is done, you end the half.

One small piece of feedback here might be to blow your whistle to end the game a bit earlier. If you'd blown while the keeper had the ball in his hands after the bicycle kick, it would have avoided the pandemonium that came from blowing your whistle 5 seconds later. Just my two cents.
 
Think I mentioned this on another thread, it’s a game of 3 halves, first, second and last 5 minutes. Really important to tune into the last 5 mins so that the decisions are correct and credible. All the players will remember sadly is the final whistle in this instance
 
Ref X said:
One small piece of feedback here might be to blow your whistle to end the game a bit earlier. If you'd blown while the keeper had the ball in his hands after the bicycle kick, it would have avoided the pandemonium that came from blowing your whistle 5 seconds later. Just my two cents.
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The keeper never had the ball, he saved it and there was a scramble in front of goal, before the centre back eventually cleared it with a big kick.
 
Gamespoiler said:
Think I mentioned this on another thread, it’s a game of 3 halves, first, second and last 5 minutes. Really important to tune into the last 5 mins so that the decisions are correct and credible. All the players will remember sadly is the final whistle in this instance
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I think I was tuned in for 4mins 57 seconds of those final 5 minutes. Just those last 3 seconds between the clearance, me blowing the whistle, and the shot from the halfway line that I struggled with....
 
DazN said:
The keeper never had the ball, he saved it and there was a scramble in front of goal, before the centre back eventually cleared it with a big kick.
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Maybe that's where you blow up whilst the ball is up in the air after it's been cleared 🤷
 
DazN said:
That's what I did, as the ball went over me I blew the whistle.
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Shouldn't be that many complaints then really but there will always be of course.

The only other thing I can think is that you can try and blow up just as you see him about to clear the ball - could make your life a bit easier and a few seconds could make all the difference.
 
DazN said:
The keeper never had the ball, he saved it and there was a scramble in front of goal, before the centre back eventually cleared it with a big kick.
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Ahh, OK.

Others have already advised on timing of the final whistle so I won't repeat them.

But it sounds like you did everything right. There will always be complaints, especially when the games involve relegation, promotion, knockouts, championships, playoffs, etc. This seems to be a reaction from the pressure, not because your decision was poor.
 
I think you probably just got very unlucky. It is not unusual that the end of a phase of a play like a corner kick would be used to mark the end of a game. It is unusual for the game to move so quickly once the ball is cleared from the PA. As others have said someone was always going to be unhappy in this situation but I am not sure you could have done much to prevent what transpired. I have seen referees blow for full time when the ball is kicked from a corner and is still in flight before entering the PA. This is likely to be very controversial also (and not something I would do or encourage) but it certainly prevents the scenario you experienced in your game. Don’t worry too much. You are one game in now. Back on that horse!
 
The end of the second half is a nightmare. 85 minutes of rapport building and smart game management out the window because anything that would have been insignificant at any other point of time.

I find when I blow the whistle the defence switches off but some striker always turns it up to 110%, dribbles past 2 defenders that don't care and has a strike.

Sounds like this is exactly what happened to you.

Would a defender have contested the striker had you not blown the whistle. Probably. They had 90 minutes to win it.
 
I had a similar one happen myself. I guarantee you will learn from the experience. That's life and in reality... you did nothing wrong.
 
I’ve just seen the Notts Forest vs Southampton game in a very similar way. Southampton keeper up for the corner, Forest defender clears from the corner and Michael Oliver immediately blows for time.

If it’s good enough for him…
 
Josh the referee said:
Shouldn't be that many complaints then really but there will always be of course.

The only other thing I can think is that you can try and blow up just as you see him about to clear the ball - could make your life a bit easier and a few seconds could make all the difference.
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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 going on, because it’s one attack after another. When you think time’s up it’s up, and sometimes we have to accept it’s not going to be popular.
 
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