Nice warm afternoon for a soccer match. Got started on time and play opened up nicely. Both sides got in some speedy advanced moves and both defences were soon stretched. To avoid complications the ball was regularly punted out of play.
I spoke to a Calne player about his attitude towards me early on. He said he was only asking the question, but he asked it for everything. I told him he could ask when he was involved but not for other incidents 50 yards away. THEN, he made a late reckless tackle. First one in the book.
I spoke to one or two others about the tackling and they seemed to listen.
Much to the relief of the gathering locals Seend managed to score a goal and we went in at half time with the home outfit in the lead.
Straight after the restart I got a second player in the book for a late challenge. He Knew - he said he was too old to catch up.
Next thing, Seend get a second goal to take the pressure off a bit. This prompted Eagles to lift their game and they introduced some subs. With fresh legs they set about the home side. The first Seend player went in the book for a late desparate tackle before Eagles finally scored to put them back in the match.
A second Seend player was booked for another lunging tackle as they desparately tried to stem the Calne flow. Against the run of play Seend netted a third. This made it look safe. An Eagles player already on a yellow card, then made a clumsy tackle from behind and they were reduced to ten players for the last 12 minutes.
Guess what! Eagles were a better side without "all-action man" and played more deliberate football, netting a second goal with 5mins left. The sent-off player had taken ages to leave the field so I added on a good ten minutes. Seend were anxiously hanging on for dear life as Eagles ten men went into overdrive.
Fortunately for Seend the defence never panicked and the keeper was magnificent. At the final whistle they remained 3-2 to the good.
In spite of going through, and I thought I'd had a good un, the home players and assistant manager gave me the verbals. Right GBH of the earhole. They don't like me one little bit.
Hey, I'm beyond all that - done it before - heard it all and some, so, good luck to em in the next round. If they get a good referee they won't know what day it is.