It was the last friendly before the season proper begins. Both teams were reserve teams to a senior club and the players looked very keen indeed to impress their managers with their aggression.
But that's by the by and it doesn't really matter that it was a friendly.
Just after the start of the second half, a red player runs into the penalty area and a defender challenges for the ball. He doesn't get the ball, but clearly fouls the attacker, who stays on his feet on the edge of the box. But he's not running directly at the goal and just stops the ball from going out of play before trying in vain to score.
Guess what -- I played advantage! Five seconds later, with the ball safely in the goalkeepers' hands, I realised what a stupid mistake I'd made. There'd been no chance of the striker scoring within a second or two so I should have given the penalty. His teammates went bonkers, protesting quite rightly that no advantage should have been given.
It was too late to do anything about it, except to acknowledge the error to the player concerned a few minutes later.
I hope it was just start of season rustiness. I was reasonably happy with the rest of my performance, despite taking a lot of abuse from players and the bench.
Friendlies are notoriously difficult to referee. There are no team sheets, so what's the official status of the game in terms of cards. So I kept the cards in my pocket. In a league game I would probably have handed out four or five yellows for dissent, action which would probably have calmed the players down. I'd also probably have sent one coach from the field of play for his language and attitude.
But hey-ho, off we go again.
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