First Outing of 09/10

Last night I had my first game of the season, a friendly between a division 1 team and a premier division team from the sunday league.

It is always difficult refereeing friendlies. Firstly you have the obvious fact that most players think because it is a friendly they can get away with anything. This is usually combatted by giving an early free kick and making sure you are seen gving the offender a talking to. Anoter problem is that there is always the potential for players to not take the game seriously, and whilst this is not problem in itself, it makes the game difficult to referee as you may well give a decision that would normally be given and you get a whole host of players complaining "it's just a friendly".

However, one of the biggest problems, for players and referees alike is the very fact that it is pre-season. When watching or playing in friendlies it is very easy to forget that this is also the referee's pre-season, and in just the same way players will make mistakes they wouldn't normally, the same applies to referees.

That said, I feel last night actually went fairly well. I probably missed a couple of fouls, and allowed one of the club linesmen to give a couple of dodgy offsides, but it didn't matter as his team were well outplayed to lose 4-1.

There were a couple of fouls that probably would have drawn yellow cards had it been a league game, but overall I was happy with my display.

I now eagerly anticipate the arrival of my first set of fixtures!