The theme of the evening was “teamwork” and the guest speakers were Darren Sheldrake and Steve Daly, who both serve on the Football League as referee and assistant respectively. Their presentations were focussed around giving decisions both in the middle and on the line and demonstrated how important it is that they work as part of a team. Both presentations were interactive and were well received by the audience.

The evening was organised through a partnership between the Referees’ Association (RA) and The Football Association (FA) and both organisations were represented.  Ray Herb, Referee Development Manager was present on behalf of The FA with Graeme Thorley, President of the Middlesex RA, also in attendance. In addition, The RA supplied a vast array of supplies and these were sold on the night by Dave Roberts and Chris Hartley.

The most pleasing aspect of the evening was the fact that there were a good number of young referees within the audience, several of whom made enquiries about joining a referees’ society.

The picture above shows guest speakers Steve Daly (left) and Darren Sheldrake at the event and we thank Mike Heavey for contributing it.