Under 12's. Tameside & District League. Division A.
Away v Chadderton

  Result - Reddish North End 3 Chadderton 3

Match Report: Rob.

Well, I had given up writing our reports but felt compelled to write this one with a lot of frustration and a bit of happiness.

We won this game! Let me explain. We arrived at Chadderton to find our opposition hadn't turned up yet, other teams were at the pitches but their games were called off after the Ref's deemed the pitches unplayable. We waited for our opponents to show up who had their "mate" the referee in tow. Ian asked the Ref for a decision on whether we are playing or not, after some time he said it would be fine even though he hadn't even looked at the pitch?! Ian had to ask him to inspect the pitch pointing out where the bad patches of water were, we agreed the pitch was ok so game on.

First half we held our own against a team that have previously beaten us 6 - 2 at home earlier in the season. In fact we played the better football at times. Chadderton scored within 15 minutes, a well taken goal it was too. We fought hard to get back and pressed for a goal. Some excellent play in midfield saw the ball land with Lewis in the box, he controlled well and hit a great shot that thundered in, 1 - 1.
This first half saw us pick up a few knocks, first Lewis was whacked on the foot and had to come off, then Nathan was taken off after being sliced up the back of the leg with studs and finally Declan was hit on the foot and to come off! These were not malicious challenges, just unfortunate and unlucky. This knocked out our usual formation but the subs came on and did a great job.

Strange thing though, after our equalising goal, Chadderton developed an extra player - the Referee!
I can honestly say, (and these are the views of everyone at the game) I have never seen a more biased Referee in any game of football ever!
In fact, he may as well have taken off his Blacks and put on a Chadderton kit. One or two bad decisions from any Ref is acceptable, but this was consistently bad throughout the half - and the game.

We went in at half time 1 - 1.

Second half. Lewis and Nathan were back on and the game changed immediately. These 2 boys are playing out of there skins together at the moment. At every chance our Captain Lewis had the ball passed out wide to Nathan on the right, who blitzed their left side for fun.
Our football was superb and we were dominating this half. Brandon was controlling the back as usual and saved us on a number of occasions when their big striker was running in on goal.
Caleb had a great debut and Kyle our striker looked sharp. This great football was duly spoiled again by the Referee. Decisions that the Ref was sat on top of at 5 yards away were awarded against us, time after time.

We continued to press forward and scored goals. With crosses coming in from out wide and sheer persistence, we were getting chances in the box.
First Kyle scored to put us 2 - 1 up and a few minutes later Caleb struck home, 3 - 1. We were looking comfortable with 15 minutes to go.
Then Chadderton's extra player appeared again. From 2 horrendous referee decisions saw Chadderton score 2 goals.
Credit to the Chadderton players, they came back at us and didn't give up but, their first goal was from a corner that was given by the Ref.
He was five yards away from a Chadderton player that clearly back heeled the ball wide of the post, no one else was near it but he gave a corner!
Ian went mental as everyone else could clearly see it went straight out of play, even the spectators who were near the half way line.
 
The second was from a throw-in that again the Ref decided it came off our left winger Connor, impossible, Connor is about 3 foot tall and the player who's head it came off was about 5 foot tall, unbelievable! and from this throw-in Chadderton scored again.
 
By this time Ian was going ballistic, the spectators were going ballistic and the Ref just got worse!
I know our under 13's have had bad experiences with some Referees in this league but this was now border lining on disgraceful.

Again we played out of our skin to try and get the winner, on 2 occasions we were clear to break on goal and the ref called offside, they were not even close. (Not in the current 20th century rule book anyway).
 
We had a further chance from a corner in the last few minutes, the ball dropped at the back post with only a tap in header needed from Caleb but the bounce got the better of him. We had another last gasp break on goal to kill off the game but the keeper stuck out his left foot and made a great save from Nathan's effort, Nath was proper upset he didn't finish it but to be fair the keeper did well to close him down so quickly. He had to be consoled and reminded that our 2 second half goals came directly from his crosses.

Into the last minute we had another corner, the ball fell inches from the goal line and was tapped in, BUT... the Ref blew the final whistle as the ball crossed the line. A complete joke as he was about 4 or 5 yards away and could see it was going to be the winner, he hurriedly blew his whistle 3 times in 'nano second' time to end the game. UNBELIEVABLE!
With seconds to go you either blow the whistle while the ball is in mid flight from the corner (neutral).
Wait until it goes out of play. (neutral)
Wait until the keeper has it and makes the goal kick (neutral).
This was a clearest case of a referee being biased that we have ever seen in football. At this point we thought Ian was going to kill him, the parents on the touchline were all upset and to be perfectly honest I truly think the Chadderton coach was embarrassed by the referee and the way the game ended, he knew it and everyone at the match knew it, we won that game.

Every player deserves a mention, they were awesome in the second half and did not deserve the draw, heads were down at the end but believe me lads you were all outstanding today.

The Referee was given 2 (very generous) points on the match card with Ian and Alan reporting him to the league, and quite rightly so, he was a disgrace.

Scorers: Lewis (1) Kyle (1) Caleb (1)

Man of the match: Brandon