Robbed! - U11 Jaguars fall short by one goal and one point

The boys -primed and ready for the game that defined their season
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So does it really all come to this? On the day the division title is to be decided, when it is absolutely paramount to ensure the game has a referee, the Vikings management team have left it until the morning of the match to confirm the allocated referee’s availability. Only to find, it’s a Bank Holiday and he is in Wales.

 

But no problem, they know another referee.

 

After a delay of half an hour, still no referee. The Jaguars’ manager suggests the game is refereed by a parent from each team. No, the referee will arrive any minute.

 

The boys were primed and ready. This match will define the season, they have to win and they were going to give it everything. Fin in goal, Neil, Ted, Tom and Charlie, TJ and Hector, Jamie, Kieran, Sam and Natty. Connor and Brendan ready to play their part from the touchline.

 

The young referee starts by telling his linesmen not to bother with offsides, as that would be his responsibility. The first half started as the rest of the half continued. The boys on the attack, a corner, a goal! Except it wasn’t a goal, the referee had disallowed it –for offside.

 

The match continued, wave after wave after wave of Jaguars’ attacks, chance after chance after chance missed, shots over, headers wide, balls bobbling in huge holes in the pitch, the brave Vikings ‘keeper making last ditch tackles on Jaguars’ forwards. The defence brilliantly organised by Ted and Tom holding firm, every tackle made , every ball headed, Fin, in goal, untroubled. Thou shall not pass. Rarely has the Manager been as proud .

 

Half time. The team talk was simple. Carry on. “You cannot play like this and not score”.

 

The second half was more competitive. The Vikings had clearly been told to start playing, but the boys continued to take the game to the opposition.

 

At this point a stranger approached the Jaguars’ Manager on the touchline and asked whether he was aware that the referee played for Stockport Vikings Under-16’s.

 

Shortly afterwards, the management team from Chinley Juniors joined the spectators, after the completion of their match on the adjacent pitch. They approached the Jaguars’ Manager and warned that the Vikings had ‘deputised’ the same referee in their match in the previous week, where two Chinley goals had been disallowed and three penalties awarded to the Vikings.

 

No matter. A corner to the Jaguars, a scramble. Goal! Teddy sidefoots the ball into the net. 1-0 to the Jaguars.

 

Ten minutes remain and the play gets desperate. Both teams fight for every ball. A blatant push on TJ is waved play on by the referee, the ball breaks. Goal to the Vikings. 1-1.

 

The play becomes even more desperate as the boys, knowing they have to win, throw everything at the Vikings goal, but still the ball would not fall, their defence would not buckle and their goalkeeper would not concede.

 

The final whistle. 1-1. The Vikings are Champions by one point. The Jaguars fall at the final hurdle after an outstanding performance. On another day, as they have done all season, the boys would have scored six, seven or eight goals. It just wasn’t meant to be. As one of the Vikings’ parents said after the game, “the better team has not won”.

 

The boys are crestfallen, tears flow. After everything they have achieved this season. They then have to watch the referee celebrate with his Vikings’ club colleagues. Is this what junior club football has come to?

 

Now let’s be clear. No one from Wilmslow Town is accusing the referee of bias or cheating. But, there is something very wrong, given the importance of this match, if the only referee the Vikings can arrange is a young lad from their own Under-16’s team. It compromises the referee, it undermines any impartiality, places him under undue pressure from his club mates, and, given the very same circumstances occurred the previous week, with the same referee, it leaves Stockport Vikings open to accusation.

 

The FA makes great play of the Respect campaign. It’s a great shame that the management team of Stockport Vikings could not find the decency, manners and respect to organise an impartial referee, or at the very least ask, before the match started, whether the Jaguars were prepared to accept the game being refereed by one of the Vikings’ own club players.

 

It has left a very sour taste and spoilt the end of a fantastic season.

 

Goalscorer; Ted (1)

 

GBK Man of the Match; it is impossible to single out an individual player in this match. The desire, determination and will to win was there for all to witness. We just fell short when it mattered.