Our October meeting featured two members of the Football Associations Elite Referee Development Plan Mel Burgin ( WSL Referee and Level 3 ) and Dec Brown (a 2B Referee ) both had travelled down from their Manchester base to be with us for the eveningÂ
Their presentation focused on, "Using Your Tools", and this was done by sharing experiences from the audience on what we found challenging and by showing clips from recent matches that they had been involved in.
Some of the wisdom they shared with us is as follows:
Importance of the first 10 minutes to grow into the game. Our work rate needs to be dynamic at this point;
Our key tools are our whistle , voice and body language and we viewed a clip to demonstrate this;
There is a time to be nice, but on some occasions we can't be so nice;
Stop look and listen , buy yourself time if you need to;Â
Risk vs Reward - Be strong and confident.
Andrew Chinn gave an excellent vote of thanks on behalf of the SocietyÂ
An excellent evening was had by all!
Steve Kelly
AFA & Lonsar Vice Chair