Had an incident in my match yesterday that had me wondering if I could have handled it better. I've heard this situation called a "dream scenario" if it happens when being assessed, but it could have easily turned into a nightmare for me!
Attacking left winger is running at the defending full back. He manages to get a pass off to a teammate inside him, but is forcefully taken out by a reckless tackle from the FB in the process. I go to blow for the foul, but realise that the teammate is in space, so clearly signal/shout for an advantage. This teammate drives forwards about 15 yards further and hits a shot from about 20 yards that requires a good save from the keeper to tip round the post, so I'm pretty happy with the advantage and signal for the corner.
At this point (no more than 10s after the foul), I turn, blow my whistle and call the full back to one side. I'm aware that the attacking team in general are unhappy with the force of the tackle, but hoping that the fact I'm clearly carding him will calm things down. Unfortunately, it doesn't - as I'm taking the FB's name, I see a little big of handbags and some shouting further back up the pitch. I quickly wave the card and then move to intervene. But having missed whatever it was that sparked this separate squabble, I only felt justified in handing out one more caution to the player who seemed to be still aggressive - the "attacking" team's RB who had found his way over to his team's left wing to cause trouble.
I felt afterwards that this would have been a perfect situation for a quick card - wave it in the FB's direction immediately after signalling for the corner and then I'm free to deal with anything else that comes up. Unfortunately, this wasn't an option to me as this league doesn't use team sheets and I needed the name. So is there anything else I could have done? Apart from signalling advantage, how do you make it clear that you're also intending to go back for a caution while still maintaining focus on the fast-moving attack? And although it didn't spark off immediately here so it doesn't necessarily apply, would you happily cancel a promising advantage if the fouled team looks like they're going to pick a fight?
Attacking left winger is running at the defending full back. He manages to get a pass off to a teammate inside him, but is forcefully taken out by a reckless tackle from the FB in the process. I go to blow for the foul, but realise that the teammate is in space, so clearly signal/shout for an advantage. This teammate drives forwards about 15 yards further and hits a shot from about 20 yards that requires a good save from the keeper to tip round the post, so I'm pretty happy with the advantage and signal for the corner.
At this point (no more than 10s after the foul), I turn, blow my whistle and call the full back to one side. I'm aware that the attacking team in general are unhappy with the force of the tackle, but hoping that the fact I'm clearly carding him will calm things down. Unfortunately, it doesn't - as I'm taking the FB's name, I see a little big of handbags and some shouting further back up the pitch. I quickly wave the card and then move to intervene. But having missed whatever it was that sparked this separate squabble, I only felt justified in handing out one more caution to the player who seemed to be still aggressive - the "attacking" team's RB who had found his way over to his team's left wing to cause trouble.
I felt afterwards that this would have been a perfect situation for a quick card - wave it in the FB's direction immediately after signalling for the corner and then I'm free to deal with anything else that comes up. Unfortunately, this wasn't an option to me as this league doesn't use team sheets and I needed the name. So is there anything else I could have done? Apart from signalling advantage, how do you make it clear that you're also intending to go back for a caution while still maintaining focus on the fast-moving attack? And although it didn't spark off immediately here so it doesn't necessarily apply, would you happily cancel a promising advantage if the fouled team looks like they're going to pick a fight?
