It is often said that a good referee is one you don’t notice, one who allows the game to ebb and flow and, above all, one who officiates with common sense and a sense of humour.
There was little evidence of any of those qualities when Havant & Waterlooville played Dorchester Town in the Blue Square South last night. The details of Havant’s 3-1 victory were consigned to the lower half of match reports thanks to David Spain, the referee.
The controversy started when a flamboyantly bewigged streaker pranced on to the field with the match delicately balanced at 1-1 in the 70th minute. Play was stopped as stewards and officials put up a pretty pathetic attempt to prevent the streaker from dancing his way around the pitch, with the players left standing, hands on hips, waiting for the charade to finish.
With no end in sight, Ashley Vickers, the Dorchester player-manager, decides to end this particular ballet with an emphatic neck-high rugby tackle. The referee’s whistle blows immediately.
Vickers, holding his hands up out of force of habit, starts to say sorry, but the referee has made up his mind and deploys his red card to the bemusement of all 22 players, both benches and the 458 in the stands.
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Vickers is inconsolable, the indignity of leaving the pitch at the same time as a man dressed as Borat clearly too much to bear.
The referee isn’t finished, however. In the final 20 minutes of the match, Spain sends off a further two Dorchester players as well as the kit-man and the assistant manager as the relegation-threatened side concede twice more.
“I’m dumbfounded and speechless,” Vickers told the Dorset Echo. “A guy ran on to the pitch without any of the stewards getting near him and I thought I was doing them a favour. My only thought was to get hold him so we could get on with the game. I managed to grab him and bring him to the ground and the funny thing was the stewards actually thanked me for it.
“But the ref decided to send me off and it beggars belief. Their players told the ref not to send me off and their chairman even offered to take a player off to even things up.
“The ref lost the game after that and he knew he had made a great error by the reaction of Havant’s players and management. In hindsight I perhaps shouldn’t have done it, but hindsight is a wonderful thing. I’m sure people will crucify me for this but I have broad shoulders.”
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Vickers faces a three-match ban for violent conduct, while Havant face an FA charge of failing to control their supporters.