RateTheRef

A quick word on Darren Drysdale in the Walsall v Crawley game on Saturday which saw IMO one of the best refereeing performances I’ve seen in a while in L2 , albeit in not the most difficult game you’d ever get, but there was two of the most unusual things I have seen a referee do, especially at EFL level...

He got the Crawley sending off spot  on for two absolutely certain YCs, co-operation with assistants, foul detection, and general game management very good.

Now the unusual...late in the game and clearly getting as annoyed as the home crowd with Crawley’s timewasting (can’t blame them with 10 men since the 35th min and away from home trying to hang on for a draw) Drysdale ran around 30-40 yards from the centre circle to roughly 10 yards from the corner flag and directly in front of the AR on that side, to kick the ball back to the Crawley GK for him to take a goal kick after the GK showed no sign of getting the ball and no other player of either side coming back from the half way line, where they were set for the goal kick, to pass it back. The easy/usual option would be a referee pointing to the watch or generally gesturing in the direction of the GK to speed things up however neither of these ever actually have much of an effect, so at least you could argue he made an active effort to get the game going again!!

Secondly, well into the added time, and after he gave Crawley a free kick in the centre circle, to the confusion of everyone he picked the ball up and held on to it for at least 30 seconds for no obvious reason while talking to the Crawley GK who was waiting to be able to take the free kick.  Definitely was no player being cautioned and there was no player down injured. It was that long, many in the crowd thought he had actually blew for full time! Then he just puts ball down and signals for the Crawley GK to take the free kick.