On Saturday, I took was one of the refs in the Girls county cup final for Dorset. My first game of the day was U13’s (Blue vs Orange). Was a great game and a real pleasure to referee. It was one of the most physical games I have ever been involved with but was nearly all fair. About midway through the second half an incident nearly occurred. Blue 10 got the ball, onside, on the halfway line and ran down the pitch. She was chased by an orange defender (5), she had another player supporting her and there were a couple of others on the other side of the pitch. As blue 10 went into the penalty area the goalkeeper came out. I saw what potentially could occur so I moved further inside the area than I would normally do. The goalkeeper dived at the player’s feet and pushed the ball away for a corner. However, if she had missed and taken down the player it would have been a penalty. Would a yellow or red card had been needed or would a penalty had been fine on its own? I had moved into a position where I was confident in seeing everything that I needed to see and not in the way in case play went into another phase.
