doing it for the kids:
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Posted: September 26th 2008
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If I may paraphrase Jamie Redknapp...that was a top, top weekend.
I witnessed three games. In the first, I merely played the role of supportive dad. My eldest, now 14, was playing against the team whose manager had made his footballing life a misery when he was 8 (all of which led, not even circuitously, to me becoming a youth gaffer in the first place).
The bloke hasn’t changed. “Make it!” he yells at his players. “Want it!!!” When they were 8, it sounded unnecessarily aggressive. Now they’re 15, it just sounds a bit pathetic. Anyway, my lad’s team came from one down to win 2-1. A sweet moment.
Onto Sunday, and we hoped for better than last week. The boys (u15s) lined up against a team we’d had very even duels with in the past...yet for 25 minutes we penned them in their own half without ever reaching top gear. We eventually scored and, as if hypnotised by all those pundits who murmur about being most vulnerable when you’ve just taken the lead, 10 minutes later we were 2-1 down...a thunderous free kick that a boy of such tender years had no right to execute; and his team mate allowed the freedom of our penalty area to power home a header from a corner.
In our new League, officially appointed refs are few and far between. One of our dads has gamely stepped forward. Last week, a couple of penalty calls (one given, one not) had some bearing on the outcome, but this week he still came back for more.
A couple of the opposition lads chuntered a bit when he didn’t blow for a quite clearly “ball to hand” moment. “Lads,” bellowed their manager, “don’t question the ref. He’s in charge and his word goes. He’ll make mistakes, but you have to get on with it.”
I suppose he considered that very clever. Probably reckons he was seen to stand up for the ref...to show him the ‘respect’ the FA is demanding...yet the message he’s given his lads is “this guy is incompetent”. Yeah, cheers...we rely on these volunteers, but they won’t hang around for long putting up with nonsense like that. Made the late equaliser even more enjoyable. At the final whistle, my opposite number gave a resigned shrug. “You were lucky”, it seemed to say. Lucky my arse, we should have been out of sight within 15 minutes...
Highlight, though, was undoubtedly the u11 girls’ game that followed. 1-0, 1-1. 2-1, 2-2. 2-3...so we lost, but it was one of those games where the result really doesn’t matter, and football really is the winner. Two teams showing complete commitment and no little skill, supportive coaching, vocal parents – and all played out in the most sporting of atmospheres. As their manager said to our girls at the end "I’d have paid good money to watch that”. Me too...