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Thanks to the co-ordination of John Kasey with the Sutton United FC, we as a society are pleased to be able to assist the club, by providing officials for pre-season friendlies and as fourth official during their first season in the Nationwide Conference League. I was happy to officiate in the role of fourth official at Sutton's recent home game against highly placed Nuneaton Borough and duly arrived at Gander Green Lane at 2.00pm an hour before the prescribed kick off.
I made for the officials changing room only to find it empty, so I headed for the bar where the visitors contingent of officials were enjoying a pre match beverage. For my part a quick orange fruit juice was consumed before returning to changing room, which was now complete with referee and his two assistants. Polite introductions were made, followed by an exchange of naming matches each of them had been involved in over the past few weeks, which included from the referee's perspective the Coventry versus Southampton encounter.
By contrast 1 felt that my Sutton & District outings (and please don't be offended by this remark John) were not literally in the "same league" so decided to be an interested listener only.
There was by mutual agreement a decision to view the pitch, although the referee advised that he had been out there already and was happy with its condition. We therefore proceeded to venture across the half way line to the far side touchline, pausing temporarily at the centre circle.
In what appeared to be somewhat exalted company, you can imagine my embarrassment when discovering that my socks were not to found in my kit bag. Good start I thought and openly made my admission to my colleagues. A thought briefly went through my mind, that as it was most likely for me not be called upon and therefore by wearing my tracksuit bottoms without socks, I could maybe get away without saying a word.
Needless to say, that thought came and went very swiftly, as you could imagine what I'd look like in that unlikely event that the referee or one of the assistants defied the odds and necessitated me stripping off my tracksuit to reveal a naked pair of legs. The comforting news was that my admission prompted a string of similar confessions from my colleagues, which brought a smile all round. The senior assistant referee kindly loaned me the necessary equipment for which I was truly grateful.
My next observation was that for the much travelled official a calculator is a must for the expenses exercise which saw the completed form duly collected by a Sutton official. Once we were all duly kited out with fifteen minutes still to go, the referee carried out his briefing.
For those new referees amongst us, it might be interesting to have an idea of what to expect as and when you have the pleasure of being part of the official team. There was an initial discussion to establish which of the two assistants was more senior and thus be prepared to take over from the referee if required. The referee went on to suggest which side of the pitch they would operate on initially and asked that having checked the goalnet, they returned to join him at the centre circle before taking up their respective positions. He was keen that good "eye to eye" contact was maintained throughout. Indication of direction when the ball went out of play was to be his decision, with a prompt that each assistant went with him, unless of course, he felt they were better placed. Each assistant should follow the ball down to the respective goal line. It was interesting that following a comment that he would watch for the six seconds ball retention in relation to the goalkeeper, he suggested that it would not be necessary to watch for the goalkeeper stepping out of the box with the ball (i.e. creating a handball infringement) as he had not found this ever to be an issue. In looking for confirmation from the rest of us, I mentioned that 1 had recently penalised a goalkeeper who had blatantly and clearly stepped out of his penalty area, to which he said "Oh".
All offsides were duly given to the assistants who were undoubtedly going to be best placed. A request for each of them to keep an eye on the "9 and 5" tussles especially when the play was in the alternate half, was something I had not heard before, but could fully see the reasoning. A flag across the chest for a penalty plus clearly if they saw any offence on the blind side of the referee ended their briefing.
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