Afternoon colleagues,
Today I refereed my first game. The game was between Yellow v Blue. It was a little windy but no rain. The Blue had no one to do the line so I essentially had 1 AR. I advised the captain of blue as they had no AR it would be difficult for throw ins (I.e seeing if ball is out) and offsides I will do the best I could. He accepted that. The game started quickly with Yellow taking the lead only for Blue to score 5 minutes later with a worldy strike. The GK came out and clear it and the Blue struck it from distance in the top bins.
Literally 30 seconds later Yellow go 2-1 up due to a 'defensive error'. Now here comes my first big decision. Blue player gets into the box from the left, Yellow dives in to tackle, misses. PENALTY! No one really complained as it was pretty clear cut. I considered a caution but it was careless and the game didn't need it. I was quite lucky as the teams respected each other well I thought. Blue take the kick, GK saves pushes the ball onto the bar, GK gets up and somehow pushes the ball into the goal! 2-2.
There were a few niggles between players but was nothing. I had a little incident where the ball was kicked (accidently) into the face of an opponent, which obviously stung, I didn't stop play, it's not a 'serious' head injury. I had a couple of players attempt to get play stopped as other team broke away by saying its a head injury. The player was up within a minute abiet his eyes were streaming. In my opinion the ball just stung him, if he was knocked clean out by a thunderbolt I obviously would have stopped play.
Still time for 2 more goals in the first half. The half finishes 3-3.
The second half was well contested. I had a few incidents of opposition players saying the ball was out, but due to no AR unless I can see the ball is out or a player is honest, it is play on. I had one gentleman who said 'ref it's a country mile out' my response it's a country mile out if you are standing on the touchline but from my position it looked in play. If you had an AR it could help you.
As above I had an incident with all players stopping, a player stops the ball on the goal line left of the goal to keep it in, from my position 15-20 yards away looked like it was stopped on line, no over the goal line. It doesn't look out to me so I do nothing, the penny dropped for the players that I wasn't blowing the whistle. Ends up a corner. I had a few whinges to which I advised please play to the whistle.
2 minutes to go, Yellows are pushing for a winner. Yellow take corner kick, ball drops inside 6 yard box, the ball rebounds off about 3-4 players, defender kicked ball against his team mate and it rebounds into the goal. I jog to half way line and make a note in my book, I turn around the defending GK has run 40 yards to complain to say he was obstructed. He wasn't swearing or threatening, he was saying he was obstructed. I saw no obstruction (to be fair I had no idea what he was talking about). I advised no, is a goal. I considered a caution for dissent just because he ran so far to talk to me, but he wasn't swearing at me, after I said goal, he retreated, it was the 90th min. A caution was required, although played on my mind after.
In stoppage time Yellow got a corner (decide to slow game down) 3 Yellow players taking the corner, one wants 10 yards, I jog over to order Blue back, Yellow decides to take corner quickly despite seeing me run over, comes off Blue for a throw, I award a throw, I advised you had the opportunity to have 10 but Yellow player decided to take kick. After that only 30 seconds left, ended 4-3 to Yellow. I believe in hindsight possibly incorrect.
I thought I did okay for my first game. I am hopeful what I learnt from today will help me in the next game.
I was only over by four minutes but it could have been worse. Apart from that, good luck. You obviously know the rules well to have passed the exam so just enjoy it and try put everything you've learned into practice! Let us know how you get on David 
