Was on the senior line today and had an incident in the 24th minute of the game. Terrible conditions and ball breaks out near just inside the centre circle nearest me on what I will be honest was a very narrow pitch.
Blue 9 and yellow 4 immediately dart towards it facing each other. I have my eye more so on yellow 4 as I sensed he was going to go in hard. He then jumps in through the air with his left foot leading the right slightly back, as he lands he takes the ball and his second foot comes through. I wince as he does this and immediately bring my flag up as I can't make eye contact with the ref to see what he's doing. As I was concentrating on the yellow I've not really seen what blue 9 has done but then hear yellow 9 scream out. Ref immediately sends off blue 9 which took me by surprise.
As he's dealing with injured player, I'm stood there thinking what should I do and decide given what I saw that I had to let him know. I call the ref over and say that yellow 4 was off the floor and used far too excessive force to attempt to win the ball. Ref asks me what I think he should do and I say he has to be red as well. Ref sends off yellow 4.
Typically the bench go nuts and I face a load of grief for the remainder of the game. Assessor said after the game said I got it wrong and tried to make me feel guilty by telling me that it could have changed the game and yellow team have now been relegated. But I still feel that if your off your feet jumping in at full pelt it's excessive force, it doesn't need two feet to be serious foul play. The fact that he got to the ball first and was fouled himself is irrelevant. I keep thinking of Jonjo Shelvey and Johnny Evans as a similar incident.
Blue 9 and yellow 4 immediately dart towards it facing each other. I have my eye more so on yellow 4 as I sensed he was going to go in hard. He then jumps in through the air with his left foot leading the right slightly back, as he lands he takes the ball and his second foot comes through. I wince as he does this and immediately bring my flag up as I can't make eye contact with the ref to see what he's doing. As I was concentrating on the yellow I've not really seen what blue 9 has done but then hear yellow 9 scream out. Ref immediately sends off blue 9 which took me by surprise.
As he's dealing with injured player, I'm stood there thinking what should I do and decide given what I saw that I had to let him know. I call the ref over and say that yellow 4 was off the floor and used far too excessive force to attempt to win the ball. Ref asks me what I think he should do and I say he has to be red as well. Ref sends off yellow 4.
Typically the bench go nuts and I face a load of grief for the remainder of the game. Assessor said after the game said I got it wrong and tried to make me feel guilty by telling me that it could have changed the game and yellow team have now been relegated. But I still feel that if your off your feet jumping in at full pelt it's excessive force, it doesn't need two feet to be serious foul play. The fact that he got to the ball first and was fouled himself is irrelevant. I keep thinking of Jonjo Shelvey and Johnny Evans as a similar incident.