Whyteleafe V Holmesdale
So, as I mentioned in my first post, this game was different to all other games i had officiated in. This was the first time that I was officiating in a game that people actually had to pay to see. The reason for this is that the league states that teams must charge for entry because the league stands on the 5th step of the National League system. This means that its a step below the Ryman League and 8 levels away from the Barclays Premier League in the English Football League System. This was my first game in this league and I was anxious. The game wasn't near where I live, so I arranged to get picked up by one of the other officials and we traveled to the game together, both suited and booted. We did all the pre match formalities like the pitch inspection (this was crucial due to the bad weather recently in the area.) We were then briefed by the referee and found out that we were all being assessed. Now, for your first game on a new league. the last thing you want is to be assessed. We went back to the changing rooms got ready and then found out we'd be using buzzer flags like they do in the Prem. Now, ive used buzzer flags before so it wasn't a big deal.
We worked well as a team through the whole game in my eyes. As expected we all got some attention from the crowd but it wasn't nothing major. The home team won 3-0 after being 0-0 at half time. The assessor came in to the dressing room at full time and gave us all minor feedback. One point he picked out for me was my flagging technique. I mad the school boy error of flagging for offside's with my left hand as opposed to my right. I noticed that I did it a few times in the match and tried to swap quickly thinking that the mistake wouldn't be noticed, but it was. Other than that, I was in the clear. Iv'e just got to wait for the official report to be sent to me, but I think that other than that mistake, I had a good game. Looking forward to my next game in that league.