Match 2 - Ancaster vs Willoughby

After a break from refereeing last week, I returned to Grove Farm this week (as did Luke). After a bit of teasing him about watching and assessing him, I was given the Ancaster vs Willoughby game to take charge of.

The most noticeable feature of the game as a whole (as I saw it at least) was the contrasting styles of the two sides. Willoughby tried to play the ball on the ground as much as possible, while Ancaster had a more physical and more direct style. The clash of these two approaches made it quite a tense encounter.

It was Willoughby who had much the better of the first half. They took the lead in the 12th minute, and proceeded to have several other excellent opportunities to extend that lead. They were on top of the Ancaster side who just couldn't handle their football. From my point of view, the opening period was trouble-free, although the players were not shying out of any tackles so I sensed I might need to be on my guard in case there was a flare-up. There was one late challenge, and I tried to keep the game flowing by playing advantage as ever.

Things changed in the 40th minute when Ancaster equalised. Willoughby had two complaints about the goal. The first was that there had been a foul when Ancaster had won the ball back from them in their own half of the pitch. This claim might have been legitimate, although I can't say there was any massive fuss at the time - only once the goal had been scored were there any real complaints. The second complaint was that an Ancaster forward was offside. He was in an offside position, but was coming back and was not "interfering with play" (that is interfering with play as far as the laws are concerned, whether in reality he was is another matter). The ball ran onto another forward and it was soon in the back of the net. I waved away offside complaints, and made no comment on the possible foul - maybe it had been, maybe it hadn't. Half-time followed with the scores still level, and Ancaster in the ascendency following their equaliser.

I thought Ancaster had the better of the second half too, although Willoughby had their chances. As before, the players didn't shirk the tackles, but they were largely fair as far as I could tell. I tried to make my interventions as infrequent as possible, without compromising my control. One Willoughby player made a late challenge, but he was going for the ball and a word of warning sufficed.

There were a series of claims throughout that second half for handball, including one in each penalty area. I turned nearly all of them down, as I was looking only for cases where the handball had definitely been deliberate. The players weren't clear on the rules, claiming "it doesn't matter if it was accidental, it was in the area...". I made it clear that it was down to my interpretation of what was deliberate. Some of them I perhaps should have given. In terms of the two penalty appeals, Ancaster's appeal came as a defender was turning and the ball struck his elbow. As far as I could tell his elbow was in a perfectly natural position. Willoughby's appeal came later on, as the ball was struck at a defender from no more than 3 yards away, and although it did strike his arm, his arm was in front of his chest. Given the proximity of the defender, and that it didn't look intentional, I waved the appeal away. Whatever you say about these decisions, you can say I was consistent in my interpretation, as an Ancaster player was heard pointing out after that second appeal.

Neither side could break the deadlock, despite chances at both ends, and the game finished 1-1. It hadn't been my best performance by any stretch of the imagination, and I doubt either team were particularly impressed. They probably felt I didn't give them enough decisions, and I probably did miss some fouls. However, I'm not there to please the teams, and the game was certainly not out of control - there were no major flashpoints and everyone got on with things for the most part. I wasn't massively helped by the linesmen today, and both sides kept changing their linesman, with some of them being particularly lazy. At the times where I did have to guess a bit, I got most of the things right. Overall, I'm fairly happy with my performance, even if it wasn't my best.

Luke had another entertaining game, with Nightingale losing 5-2 against Rutland in another keenly contested game. Both of us felt pretty tired afterwards - I can't be that unfit! I still enjoyed it though, which is the main thing. On to tonight's Champions League action!