Having refereed the team before, I was aware that the club linesman had already introduced himself as a senior referee, implying clearly that he knew what he was talking about. But I treated him as any club line and asked for the usual limited service, fortunately as t turned out.
He was impressive in the first half, but - in a tetchy and difficult local derby - I was surprised that a qualified referee should react so angrily when a player complained to him. "He called me a cheat," he told me at half time. "That's strange, I didn't hear him using the word cheat," I told him. "Well he questioned my decision and in my book that's the same as calling me a cheat."
I have to confess that set me off wondering just how senior he was and the fact that he launched into criticism of my referreing confirmed my suspicions. He was not referreeing "at the moment" because he was club secretary for the visiting team.
I thanked him for his views and carried on. That said, he was clearly a qualified ref. His decisions were crisp and helpful on the whole and little things like checking the goal kicks were taken from inside the goal area before sprinting to the last defender were a big help.
The game was a stroppy affair, with six yellows and five goals, the winner being scored by the unfancied home team just a couple of minutes before the end. I took a lot of abuse from spectators, benches and players during the game and I was forced to slow the game up with authoritarian whistling - not my favourite style - for a 15-minute spell in the second half.
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