I haven't refereed since November, I'm rusty, very rusty. The opening minutes of my match today started with me seeing a player slide in and me think to myself "oh thats a foul" while simultaneosuly pointing the other direfction for a throw. Not a good start, it didn't look it was going to improve when i blew the whistle and told a player to back up only for him to throw the ball and me shrug and say "whatever" cue everyone complaining i told him to go back. I settled into the match from there but then came the first potential caution, right on the corner of the box, easy first yellow for Stopping a Promising Attack. But as you will probably soon come to read, as i blog more, i try to manage everything. Well i didnt do a very good job in my talking to, as i had quite a few complaints and it was a yellow but i set the player up well for a yellow which would turn out to be well done.

The next incident was a straight leg challenge with the studs right into the ankle of a player. Sounds like a red Card doesnt it? Well it probably should have been, but i much to often let peoples complaints and reactions influence my opinion. Anyways the fouled player gets up and pushes his opponent in the face with both hands pretty forcefully. Cool...so should i send them both off? should i send off the tackler and caution the retaliation? or should i caution them both? I cautioned them both although i went right into the semi mass confrontation and showed a yellow to the player who retaliated first and then the tackler. Maybe not the best way of doing it but everyone then seemed to drift apart. I then had a little word with both players, although i haven't been great at doing this as it often feels rushed and i dont always get my message across. I should have slowed the match down and talked to both to relax things.

Shortly after a player right on the edge of the penalty area brings down a forward with a clearly reckless tackle but as i previously managed a similar foul for the opposing team i chose to manage this one. Now this was a big, big risk as the tackle was a poor one and if i didn't get a another opportunity to caution that team then the opposing team would be after me. Lucky for me only about 10 minutes later with nothing of note having happened in between the same players are involved in a similar incident and i can show an easy yellow card.

I called a penalty a few minutes later and as i was standing infront of the penalty spot i had the weird feeling of pointing to the spot from in front of it. As a sidenote my positioning has been pretty poor on setpieces as i am no where near the players and have no control of them, but i can see the offside line. I think i need to compromize and get closer to the players or stand on the side they are on.

Second half i had the player who i had managed with the first potential foul commit a reckless tackle and although the fouled player and everyone reacted normally, it was his second and i had told him before. This shows that you shouldn't make decisions using players reactions, though it can be a useful tool. About 15 minutes later the player who had been cautioned came in and thwacked an opposition player with a tackle and so i had to send him off for a second caution.

I had numerous complaints that i was being bullied and was scared of the home teams centerback. He had been jawing all game( this is something i currently struggle with here, players talking shit to each other and saying to my face that i'm having a shocker-and thats putting it nicely- and me not knowing how to deal with it), and had also booted the ball off after his team had scored.  i need to learn how to appropiately take action on things like  At the very end there was an offside which i would have been very smart to call, but i didn't which didn't bring me any points from the losing team.