Today the team faced Velocity Tigers away from home who were sitting second place in the league. Due to holidays for half term the team only had 10 players and faced yet another match without a referee which we were not happy about.

The game started well for us seeing some great passing and attacking play. Velocity also attacked but almost every chance was offside. The person standing in as ref allowed play to continue on many of these occasions of offside but luckily goal keeper Thomas was having the game of his life and denied them time and time again. Eventually the stand in referee allowed a parent from each side to run the line which helped to keep the offside decisions right.

Today's opposition were extremely physical and towered above almost every player in our squad. Regardless of this our players worked hard and stood their ground not being bullied off the ball. In the 25th minute we were finally rewarded with a brilliant ball played in from Marc finding Liam who sent the ball crashing past the Velocity keeper. Less than 3 minutes later after a foul against us we were awarded a free kick. Freya stepped up to take it but some strange tactics from the Velocity players resulting in them not being 10 yards away from her kick and the stand in referee allowing it. Freya struck the ball where it hit off the Velocity player standing directly in front of her, as it bounced back into her path she picked out a superb pass to Liams feet who beat the keeper for the second time. Right before the half time break Velocity managed to grab a goal back closing the gap as we entered the break.

The second half started with a good football between the sides, Velocity coming at us as we did at them, a few minutes into the second half they managed to get the ball in the back of our net but the liner informed the referee the ball had already gone out of play before the shot was taken so the goal started from our goal keeper. The kids began to replay the game as shouting about the goal being disallowed was heard from the other side of the pitch. The stand in referee after allowing play to continue was now saying it was a goal. The game was stopped and we asked the referee how can he not give a goal, allow play to restart and then change his mind. The Velocity coach agreed he couldn't change his mind so the game stayed 2-1.

The next goal came in the 38th minute this time with new signing Wiktor playing through a superb pass to Liam who slotted the ball into the back of the net once again and giving him his Well deserved hattrick. After this the team started to find their rhythm and scored again a few minutes later with a brilliant finish from Wiktor. The opposition team and coach now shouting offside and taking a goal kick, the stand in referee just allowing this to happen. 2 minutes later we netted again this time it was Mason who found the net. Once again the Velocity players claimed offside and in complete disbelief the stand in referee just allowed them to once again take a goal kick and not award the goal. Things were getting silly now and some of the opposition players began getting extremely agreesive towards ours. The goal keeper pushed striker Mason in the chest with both hands forcing him to the ground, the referee doing nothing. Due to no punishments really bad tackles began happening all over the pitch, the final straw was a really bad challenge on Liam from the back and for completely no reason at all as no attempt was made for the ball. As coach of the team I decided that this game was getting more and more increasingly out of hand and the stand in referee clearly had zero control. This was a huge safeguarding risk for the kids and I made the decision to pull my players from the field of play before someone got seriously hurt.

After a conversation with the opposition coach it was decided with less than 10 minutes to play that our win would stand and that next time the two teams meet an official referee will be officiating the game.

Overall, a very awful match for all the kids, coaches and parents but huge credit to the players for the great team performance and for picking up 3 points against a good physical side. Well done to all the kids.

Goals from:
Liam ⚽️⚽️⚽️

Player of the match today was awarded to Liam for his absolutely outstanding performance from start to finish, he worked his socks off all other the pitch and scored 3 fantastic goals. Well done Liam.

Rutherford AFC

Velocity Tigers

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