Come on REF
Remember when you were young, you were brought to the swimming pool for the very 1st time. Your oversized swimming coach threw you straight into the deep end of the pool. You felt frightened, you then feel lost, what are you doing here? in such a unfamiliar setting. The natural need for survival soon kick in, you begin to grab on to anything you can get your hands on. You slowly begin to get comfortable with this new environment, you released your grip on the wall. You kicked once, then you kicked twice, after sometime you learnt to keep yourself alive in the water. That's what i felt when i was given my assessment as a referee today.
Was damn excited today, this is the one and only practical test given to me, if i screw up, my career(which never started btw) as a ref will be over. Was at the marina bay mrt station more than half and hour before the agreed meeting time between my collegue and my close friend during the course Shah. Made our way to the marina south open fields and got changed. Shortly after the senior Ref(there to guide us and take over in case we screw up) and the assessor( the gudge, jury and excecusioner). Met up with both the teams, most of the player's age were larger than the combined age of me and shah. Started off as the assistant referee2 in the 1st half. Had a wrong offside decision where i raised the flag for the person being in an offside position despite him being not interferring with play. For all the football newbies out there, law 12 of the law book states that it is an offence if the player is in an offside position and he must be 1)interferring with play. 2) interferring with an opponent. 3) gaining an advantage by being in that position. Besides that wrong decision, the 1st half went on quite well for me other than the constant argueing by the players on my decisions. Was given an assurance later by the assessor that my offside decisions(or no offside btw) are accurate and good.
Took over the whistle from Shah at half time. Was advised to be strict and confident with my decisions by Ravi( the senior ref). I followed his advice and tried to be as firm as possible, in other words i put my game face on. Was abit loss at the start but gradually i got into the game. Was strict to the players, instructing them to play to my whistle when a decision does not go their way, gave the yellow cards when its needed(3 of them in fact). I looked at my watch, it says 43mins++ so i thought to myself, i'll be safe from this game. Just then i saw a tackle from behind in the penalty area and rightfully gave a penalty. The players felt frustrated that the penalty was given to their opponents in the last min of the game when the score is still dead-locked at 1-1. They also felt that the decision was unjustified. I recalled from the course that we were told to back away from the spot once we give the decision. Just then i saw this guy in a roma jersey charging at me and punched me in my chest. My 1st reaction was to reach for my red card in the right pocket, however on 2nd thoughts, i took my hands out of the pocket. If i were to show the card to him at that moment, i would create a bigger mess and the game will turn out to become a footbrawl. It is also a friendly game so its not that good if i gave him a red card. Blew the final whistle with a score of 3-1. Had a long debrief with my assessor after the game. He told us about our good points and our bad points. The good point for me is that i was brave in giving out my decisions and i was very vocal in the game, in terms of shouting play on etc. The major fault in my game is my positioning, the Ref, ball, assistant Ref formation was constantly missing. The signalling requires a little fine tuning. Overall both of us did well in this difficult game, made worse by the over enthusiam by the players. And we passed, we'll be getting our badges soon after all of the trainies had completed their practical tests
Was damn excited today, this is the one and only practical test given to me, if i screw up, my career(which never started btw) as a ref will be over. Was at the marina bay mrt station more than half and hour before the agreed meeting time between my collegue and my close friend during the course Shah. Made our way to the marina south open fields and got changed. Shortly after the senior Ref(there to guide us and take over in case we screw up) and the assessor( the gudge, jury and excecusioner). Met up with both the teams, most of the player's age were larger than the combined age of me and shah. Started off as the assistant referee2 in the 1st half. Had a wrong offside decision where i raised the flag for the person being in an offside position despite him being not interferring with play. For all the football newbies out there, law 12 of the law book states that it is an offence if the player is in an offside position and he must be 1)interferring with play. 2) interferring with an opponent. 3) gaining an advantage by being in that position. Besides that wrong decision, the 1st half went on quite well for me other than the constant argueing by the players on my decisions. Was given an assurance later by the assessor that my offside decisions(or no offside btw) are accurate and good.
Took over the whistle from Shah at half time. Was advised to be strict and confident with my decisions by Ravi( the senior ref). I followed his advice and tried to be as firm as possible, in other words i put my game face on. Was abit loss at the start but gradually i got into the game. Was strict to the players, instructing them to play to my whistle when a decision does not go their way, gave the yellow cards when its needed(3 of them in fact). I looked at my watch, it says 43mins++ so i thought to myself, i'll be safe from this game. Just then i saw a tackle from behind in the penalty area and rightfully gave a penalty. The players felt frustrated that the penalty was given to their opponents in the last min of the game when the score is still dead-locked at 1-1. They also felt that the decision was unjustified. I recalled from the course that we were told to back away from the spot once we give the decision. Just then i saw this guy in a roma jersey charging at me and punched me in my chest. My 1st reaction was to reach for my red card in the right pocket, however on 2nd thoughts, i took my hands out of the pocket. If i were to show the card to him at that moment, i would create a bigger mess and the game will turn out to become a footbrawl. It is also a friendly game so its not that good if i gave him a red card. Blew the final whistle with a score of 3-1. Had a long debrief with my assessor after the game. He told us about our good points and our bad points. The good point for me is that i was brave in giving out my decisions and i was very vocal in the game, in terms of shouting play on etc. The major fault in my game is my positioning, the Ref, ball, assistant Ref formation was constantly missing. The signalling requires a little fine tuning. Overall both of us did well in this difficult game, made worse by the over enthusiam by the players. And we passed, we'll be getting our badges soon after all of the trainies had completed their practical tests
