Over 18 months since my last post and almost a year since I last picked up the whistle. A mixture of life, availability and finding suitable appointments meant the break went on a lot longer than planned. I hope all is well in RefChat land.
Having finally got my life admin in order, I was back yesterday for U14 boys. For context, I’m Level 7 with around 50 games over four years, so there was definitely some rust to shake off!
The game finished 10–0, so it was fairly one-sided, but there were a couple of interesting moments.
First: within the opening ten minutes, a Yellow defender tripped an opponent and then pulled them down by the shirt while stopping an attack. Yellow card.
I’ve previously felt I could be too lenient with cautions, particularly at youth level, but this felt pretty clear-cut. The coach asked about it at half time and we had a polite discussion about the decision. Coach then remonstrated that it was "definitely a foul, but never a yellow, it wouldn't even be a yellow in men's football". I said I am not discussing and we will agree to disagree (I nearly argued that if it was men's football it could've been red card territory for DOGSO but thought better of it. - it wasn't DOGSO in this scenario as there was a covering defender)
I don't take any pleasure in cautioning young players, and would much rather use these moments to educate, but sometimes the offence meets the criteria and you have to act and hopefully they learn from it.
Second: another yellow player was involved in a few incidents and became increasingly vocal about decisions. I spoke to them and asked them to calm down, and later explained to the coach that if it continued, a sin bin was an option.
Sure enough, halfway through the second half, they failed to retreat from a free kick despite two warnings and continued to argue. Sin bin.
For me, it was less about that individual incident and more about the pattern of behaviour despite the earlier conversations.
Overall, I actually felt pretty good about the performance. I was expecting to be rusty, but I felt I managed the niggly stuff well and, importantly, communicated with the players
One moment I was particularly pleased with came from the first corner. I warned an attacker not to interfere with the goalkeeper. The ball came in, they grabbed the keeper's arm and pulled them back, so free kick. They protested that they hadn't touched them, but I explained what I'd seen.
No more corner issues for the rest of the game!
One question:
Why do so many young players seem to think pushing is a part of football?
Some of the most obvious pushes in the back and you still get the confident "I didn't touch him!"
Anyway... it's good to be back.
I think.
Having finally got my life admin in order, I was back yesterday for U14 boys. For context, I’m Level 7 with around 50 games over four years, so there was definitely some rust to shake off!
The game finished 10–0, so it was fairly one-sided, but there were a couple of interesting moments.
First: within the opening ten minutes, a Yellow defender tripped an opponent and then pulled them down by the shirt while stopping an attack. Yellow card.
I’ve previously felt I could be too lenient with cautions, particularly at youth level, but this felt pretty clear-cut. The coach asked about it at half time and we had a polite discussion about the decision. Coach then remonstrated that it was "definitely a foul, but never a yellow, it wouldn't even be a yellow in men's football". I said I am not discussing and we will agree to disagree (I nearly argued that if it was men's football it could've been red card territory for DOGSO but thought better of it. - it wasn't DOGSO in this scenario as there was a covering defender)
I don't take any pleasure in cautioning young players, and would much rather use these moments to educate, but sometimes the offence meets the criteria and you have to act and hopefully they learn from it.
Second: another yellow player was involved in a few incidents and became increasingly vocal about decisions. I spoke to them and asked them to calm down, and later explained to the coach that if it continued, a sin bin was an option.
Sure enough, halfway through the second half, they failed to retreat from a free kick despite two warnings and continued to argue. Sin bin.
For me, it was less about that individual incident and more about the pattern of behaviour despite the earlier conversations.
Overall, I actually felt pretty good about the performance. I was expecting to be rusty, but I felt I managed the niggly stuff well and, importantly, communicated with the players
One moment I was particularly pleased with came from the first corner. I warned an attacker not to interfere with the goalkeeper. The ball came in, they grabbed the keeper's arm and pulled them back, so free kick. They protested that they hadn't touched them, but I explained what I'd seen.
No more corner issues for the rest of the game!
One question:
Why do so many young players seem to think pushing is a part of football?
Some of the most obvious pushes in the back and you still get the confident "I didn't touch him!"
Anyway... it's good to be back.
I think.
