Jonathan YeomansFor my weekly report I will be looking at both the Nottingham Forest and Huddersfield games.
To say I’m grasping at straws to talk about decisions made is an understatement.
Both games had literally no controversial decisions. As a ref, its lovely to have games like this.
First the Forest game. I really liked the way the ref for the Forest game played the advantages and let the game flow & pull ball back if play didn’t develop. It was a classic wait and see. You can only do this if the players are behaving and not rolling around or protesting over every decision
The new street wise approach was highlighted in the 70th minute when Matt Grimes cynically took out the dangerous Knockart of Forest.
This is where the wait & see can go against you, as play can go for a long time. For me the top refs will still issue the yellow card, even if its 5 minutes later. However, at the higher level, if play goes on for over a minute the players get away with it. It really annoys me when it happens
Onto the Huddersfield game. This was a game where you get the players from the team that has capitulated literally pleading with you to blow up early.
I thought the way the ref dealt with the Morris injury was exemplary.. Also full credit to the Huddersfield players as well. It was refreshing to see players trying to look out for opposition
This is the unseen part of reffing. When a player goes down like Morris did, players will often surround them. The ref instructed players to move away to allow space.
This helps the medical team access to the incident.
Its horrible to carry on reffing and playing after an incident like this as everyone’s mind is on the player.
At local level as long as 3/4 of game has gone the ref will blow up early. This is only if both teams want it.
