2007-08 Referees Challenge

"Refs lose out in seven goal thriller" - Report from John Harkin

Few who were present at the Douglas Eyre on Monday 21 April 2008 could have anticipated the drama that was about to unfold.

As the refs knocked the ball about in their pre-match warm up, they confirmed the old adage that, whilst form may be temporary, class is, indeed, permanent. Opting to line up in their favoured 4-4-2 formation, the refs patiently awaited their opposition from Norton Rose. At 7:30, referee John McGuire placed the whistle to his lips, gave a shrill blast, and the game was on.

The opening minutes were to prove relatively even. Keeper Dave Simpson handled confidently when called in to action. In front of him, the defence was superbly marshalled by Sohael Qayyum, ably assisted by Chad Chaudhuri, Phil Cain and Chris Beament. The midfield quartet of Olivier Roguez, Freddie Collins, Paul Goodwin and Matthew Day provided good cover for their defensive colleagues, whilst linking up cleverly with Tony King and the tireless George Rimvydas.

As the opening stages of the matches were being played out, the Norton Rose players could be seen casting nervous glances to the ref’s bench, and the quality that was available there.

Disaster befell the refs midway through the first half, as, temporarily confused by a switch from zonal to man marking, the defence left a Norton Rose player unmarked in the box to easily convert a well worked corner. 1-0 Norton Rose. Unfazed by this setback, the refs introduced Pat Ryan, Joe Teixeira and Kevin Preston to the fray. For the rest of the half, the refs probed and harried but were unable to break through the well-drilled Norton Rose defence, and went into the break facing a one goal deficit.

For the second half, the refs brought on Michael Jeyes and John Harkin, the latter who was to provide arguably the game’s pivotal moment. Ten minutes into the second half, John Harkin collected the ball from a throw-in some 25 yards from the Norton Rose goal. Dismayed at the lack of options offered to him by his team-mates, he decided his best option was a strike on goal. The ball was perfectly struck, whistling past the stranded keeper before crashing off the underside of the bar, and nestling in the back of the net. 1-1  and all to play for.

It is said that teams are at their most vulnerable when they have just scored, and this was to prove the case as Norton Rose proceeded to score five unanswered goals, totally against the run of play, the majority of which were offside, or handball or some other infringement probably….

The remainder of the match saw the refs trying to find a way to reduce the arrears, John Harkin forcing a fine save with another long range effort, whilst Tony King, Olivier Roguez and George Rimvydas all shot narrowly wide when hitting the target appeared the easier option.

As referee McGuire blew the final whistle, the relief from Norton Rose was palpable. They were clearly on the ropes, and had Mr McGuire allowed the correct amount of additional time to be played, the scoreline may have been significantly different, and he may have had another 10 points added to his marks.

As it was the refs accepted their defeat with good grace and sportingly congratulated their opponents, before retiring to the Coppermill.

Man of the match for the refs goes to George Rimvydas, who ran tirelessly for the full 90 minutes. Well done, as well to Sohael and Chris who also lasted the full ninety.

In closing, on behalf of the refs, I would like to thank Norton Rose for the sporting manner in which the match was played, and to apologise for the one-eyed nature of this match report.

They were worthy winners who thoroughly deserved the result on the night.

All in all, a very enjoyable night, and one which we are all keen to repeat.

******

Norton Rose 6 "The Referees" 1 (Monday 21st April 2008) - Alternative Report from Danny McConnell

Apology: apologies for initially reporting this as 5-1. This was genuinely inadvertent, and sad to say, we simply lost count!

The inaugural "Referees Challenge" took place last night at Walthamstow as Norton Rose faced the panel of referees. A late availability crisis for Norton Rose saw 17 drop to 10 by 6pm, so nobly yours truly transferred late (OK, I'll admit, good news for me, as it gave me an excuse to escape the referees team).

A few snapshots. First of all the referees were almost to a man there by 7pm for a 7.30pm KO, and with sixteen of them in the changing room the amount of verbal whatsits I heard broke all records. Interestingly, whilst they were all talking about how good the game would be, for at least quarter of an hour none of them showed any inclination to get changed.

Norton Rose arrived last minute, and virtually as soon as we got out onto the pitch, were faced with sixteen referees moaning "let's get on with it". Plus ca change.....

The game itself was highly entertaining, albeit highly charged, with a fair amount of verbal abuse both on and off the pitch, all be it only from the referees off the pitch exchanging "encouragement" with those on the pitch (who generally were too busy breathing to scream back), though the highlight had to be a referee who shall remain nameless screaming at another "shut up, you're French". Whether this was racism, or simply stating a fact, we don't know. Olivier didn't take offence.

The match itself saw the referees wheel back the centuries of rust and give Norton Rose a footballing lesson (so I was told in the Coppermill afterwards), the highlight being John Harkin's screamer from 25 yards. We (Norton Rose) were somewhat fortunate to run out 6-1 winners!

Congratulations should go to John McGuire, who refereed the game impartially and accurately, with by my count only seventeen dodgy offside and fifteen incorrect throw-in decisions, one of which Norton Rose queried (note - when sixteen referees moan it was a dodgy offside, I've only counted that as one).

If the talk in the pub is accurate, this game won't be the last, though I suspect a canvas of refereeing participants at their desks this morning might come up with an entirely different conclusion.

******

The Final Word

Appropriately, the final word goes to Andy Williams, a fellow UCL Academicals Veteran who was called up last minute to ensure Norton Rose had 11 men.

"Thanks for the game Danny, it was nice to feel young again."