Referee Development Group Meeting October 1st
This month’s development group meeting found us at the Forest Town Arena to witness three
Nottinghamshire FA Development Group referees, take control of an H-K-L Development League
fixture between AFC Mansfield U21 –V- Belper Town FC U21.
The appointed officials were Neil Allsop as referee and his able assistants, Ibrahim Arsali and Fraser
Williamson. It’s never easy to referee in front of colleagues but to have the development group in
attendance including being filmed by ‘In-Play Sport Analysis’ added to the pressure for the
officials. The match gave us great opportunity to witness a team performance, take notes and provide
coaching tips that we witnessed. Excellence through Development is our strap line this season, and
this was the main objective of the session.
Neil gave his pre-match team brief on the field of play in front of the cameras where Ibrahim and
Fraser stood to attention, literally, in anticipation to their instructions. They must have taken every
word on board as we witnessed a fantastic team performance. The brief must have calmed the team
down because when the game kicked off, the players and officials set out in providing every spectator
with a great game of football.
Prior to the start, head coach Dave Plowright, introduced us all to the coaching report. The report
would be used for us to judge Neil’s performance as referee and provide feedback into
development. Not only to his game, but adapting the game situations and developing our own games
too. The coaching report is adapted to give the referee a more pictorial view on strengths and
developments instead of the usual assessors match report.
The game started at a quick and frantic pace, and Neil set out in controlling the match and letting the
players play within the confines of the Laws of the Game. Belper Town fell behind after 8 minutes and
then found themselves 2 nil after 12 minutes. This second goal was awarded after a quick AFC
Mansfield counter attack and a tight non-offside call that Fraser judged to perfection. AFC Mansfield
had a third before half time as the match was end to end. Neil worked tirelessly in the first half and
displayed the quality of his status as a Level 4 Supply League Referee.
During the interval, we all congregated in the clubhouse to evaluate the performances so
far. Everyone had development areas, but these were very minor. We all struggled to provide any
significant areas for improvement but all agreed that positioning in open play was his main area to
concentrate moving forward to future games.
In the second half Neil kept the tempo up and worked hard to keep control. He had two incidents
where he chose to caution players, where varying angles from those watching, provided different
opinions on the severity and the need to caution instead of man managing the situation. The match
will be analysed during the next training meeting, and these situations will provide great areas of
discussion and development.
Belper Town continued to try and get back into the game, but another two goals from AFC Mansfield
ensured a 5-0 victory. The team of officials kept a low profile through the match and was only
challenged toward the end of the game where an obvious defending throw to everyone watching,
resulted in an attacking throw. Must have taken a deflection from the defenders size 35 boots! All was
restored and the match was brought to a successful conclusion by the officials.
Again, the group convened in the clubhouse to discuss the talking points of the match. In all honesty,
Neil kept control of the fixture with very minor development areas noticed. The main development
area that we all agreed was his positioning and proximity in open play.
We look forward to viewing the footage from ‘In-Play Sports Analysis’ in our next meeting and the
Development Group would like to that them and AFC Mansfield for the hospitality during our training
evening.
Report by Ken Hughes (Level 4)