Last weekend, for my sins, I went with my
Dad to watch Gainsborough Trinity play Alfreton Town, two teams at the lower
end of the English regional sixth division (National League North).
Gainsborough haven't had much success lately, so when they went 1-0 up after
half an hour the celebrations were more than you might expect at this level.
The goal scorer sprinted towards the home bench and jumped into the arms of his
coach. The rest of the team followed and there was an almighty love-in.
My dad, who's very much old school when it
comes to sporting behaviour, groaned at this excessive display, just as he'd loudly
objected earlier to one of the Gainsborough players trying to get the referee involved
in a long and pointless discussion about the exact place where an opponent's
free-kick was about to be taken. The Alfreton players, meanwhile, had spotted
that the Gainsborough players were now all in their own half, emoting by the
bench. They had the ball at the centre spot and were ready for a quick restart.
They looked to the referee for a signal.
And according to the laws of the game, he should have let them play. They would
have had a clear run on goal, aside from maybe the home side's goalkeeper. But the referee refused to give the signal for the restart until all the Gainsborough players
had finished hugging each other and had lined back up in position.
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| Trinity slowly wind up their celebrations. Note clear path to goal. |
This was a wrong decision, but understandable.
There's enough drama at this level already - you could see this from the moronic
antics of the home bench during the game's first half hour,
contesting throw-in calls and throwing their arms up at every foul given
against them. If Alfreton had taken a quick kick-off and scored, the chances
that the home team would have understandingly conceded that this was well
within the laws of the game were extremely low. There would have been theatrical protests,
mobbing and hysterical remonstrations, and the rest of the afternoon would
likely have been a nightmare for the young referee, Samuel Barrott, who overall
did a very good job of managing the game.
On the other hand, I would love to have
seen Mr. Barrott give Alfreton the go-ahead. The Gainsborough celebrations were
ridiculously over the top not just for a game at this level, but at any level. If
Alfreton had been allowed to speed down to the Gainsborough goal and equalise,
the home side could have had no complaints. And they might have held back a
little the next time they scored the opening goal of a game with an hour still
to go, instead of reacting like they'd just secured Champions League
qualification for the first time in Lincolnshire footballing history.
I don't expect teams to react to goals like
Victorian-era gentlemen who thought that showing emotion was an unseemly
aberration of character. Yet as a coach I see the effect that these public outpourings
have on the game at large. During U7 practice it only takes a
toe-poke between two cones to set some of the kids off running around the pitch
like Cristiano Ronaldo scoring a last-minute winner in El Clásico. (Though I always encourage the team that's conceded to
head straight back up to the other cones and cancel the goal out.)
The simple solution to ending this glut of
self-glorification? A rule stating that the opposition is entitled to re-start
the game within 15 seconds of a goal being scored, regardless of where the other
side is piled up in a time-wasting communal snog.
Final
score: Gainsborough Trinity 2 Alfreton Town 1
(crowd: 483)
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| Gainsborough Trinity v Alfreton Town, 27.01.18. |
Click here to order Reffing Hell: Stuck In The Middle Of A Game Gone Wrong by Ian Plenderleith (Halcyon Publishing), published on August 8, 2022.
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