I stepped in to referee my son's Under 10 team's big match today, Holy Trinity Hawks v St James Harriers, two teams first and second in their league.
It was a great match played in the right spirit with two well drilled, enthusiastic kids and the hardest decisions the rookie ref had to make was a handball (against us)that lead to the first goal and a couple of over enthusiastic tackles.
Fast forward to the second half, we are 2-1 down and crawling all over them looking for an equaliser that would set us up nicely for the second half of the season after Christmas.
3 minutes to go we get a corner, our midfielder hits it and it ends up in the back of the net without another player touching it....a George Best moment, wild celebrations all round... but wait, the goalie and the away coach who was on the goal line said it had gone in through a gap in the side netting.....drama.... what the hell to do???, looked like a goal to me, easy to look like a cheating "homer" so I did the simple thing and asked the kid who took the corner.....answer : "It did go in through the side netting", no goal.... peep, goal kick and despite a couple of good chances Holy Trinity Hawks lose 2-1.
Well done Master B, Mum and Dad should be proud of you.
The great news is that the Thierry Henry Factor hasn't filtered down yet and kids understand the difference between right and wrong and that drawing or winning by a lie or cheating doesn't feel anywhere near as good as doing it the right way, long may it continue !
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