RateTheRef

At roughly the same time as the first encouraging sighting of Mr Crossley, a couple of years ago, another young referee at the same stage of his career was seen in action at Liversedge. His work was described as competent and his decision-making sound, but overall, despite his high academic qualifications, did not inspire the same enthusiasm, though the report here did say that he could well develop with time. It would be interesting to see whether he had done so, when he took charge of

Monday 4th October 2021
NPL East
Brighouse Town   2   v   1   Stocksbridge Park Steels
Dane McCarrick; James Gallagher, Joshua Brayshaw.

One prediction made two years ago certainly proved correct, Mr McCarrick having bowed gracefully to the inexorable inroads of his forehead. Stocksbridge bossed the early stages, but Brighouse established themselves in the visitors' half. On 11 minutes the raffle seller was heard approaching; JCFC looked for a pound coin and, not finding one, began to sort out his change. Tipping his hand slightly to make use of the floodlights, he contrived to drop several coins on the ground. Bending to pick them up, he suddenly heard a cheer as Town opened the scoring. Those who witnessed the goal say that it was a decent shot into the foot of the opposite corner. The  Stocksbridge number 8 was spoken to for a mistimed tackle and when he repeated the offence midway through the half, he inevitably received a yellow card. His number 4 followed some ten minutes later. On 37 minutes a Brighouse attacker was running into the penalty area when there was a tangle of legs. Mr McCarrick had a very good position and pointed to the spot, Brighouse making it 2-0.

The second half produced considerable Brighouse pressure, with a string of corners, but they were at times slack with their marking - a stronger attack would have punished them. On 82 minutes the visitors were guilty of a dreadful miss, but just as the PA announced the additional time, they finally got a goal back. Mr McCarrick was impressive with the speed at which he headed towards the goal, successfully preventing any grappling for the ball. There were a couple of Stocksbridge fouls and a yellow card for the Stocksbridge number 2, before Town could breathe a sigh of relief at mthe final whistle.

Mr McCarrick certainly appeared to have developed his refereeing, with good anticipation, firm control and excellent triage, giving little scope for dissent. His close-quarters chivvying of the Brighouse keeper to deter time-wasting was well-judged. His in-depth study of psychology has, it seems, taught him to employ the full range of facial expressions from stern to grim. On this evidence, though, it definitely seems to be a successful approach.

Brighouse briefly found themselves towards the top end of the table, having the best goal difference of the clubs on 13 points - the result of not having played any of the division's strongest sides. Their next match is at Marske - things will doubtless change then!