I did used to referee both junior and adult football, but the amount of greif you receive for giving up a sunday morning or saturday afternoon hardly seemed worth the £10 you were paid. The funny thing about refereeing is the "feedback" that every team has to give. The winning side always thought you were the man who should be refereeing the world cup final, yet the losing side wanted you "put down" there and then...

Oh the memories

The game was very tight and every time we looked to have put a bit of daylight between us, we let them in again with some pretty poor tackling at times. This kind of game does create atmosphere but it's a tense kind and not the sort where people feel like singing.

"You're not singing anymore" is a taunt and a cliché, but things become clichéd because they contain a certain truth, and that truth, in this case, is that most folk just don't want to sing when the game is very close.

Odd how people seem to have deleted from their memories what a cracking atmosphere we had against Cas, especially the last 20 mins or so when the place was a cauldron. Yet this can't happen at Odsal, with no roof, can it? Must have imagined it.

Is it a catch 22 situation tho'. Does a lacklustre team perforrmance affect the crowd, or does a 'quiet' crowd affect team performance.

Well if you look at it this way, wigan, wire, st's all have big followings.... and they are up top of the table, were as catalans, crusaders, quins dont have such a big following... Theyve been in bottom half of the league

I've never had any doubt, and the Cas match just reinforced, that most fans do come to have a shout and cheer the team on and get involved, and will do so, if the performance on the field gets them going. If it's dead on the field, no amount of tannoy cheerleading will have any effect at all. But the point is, people don't [iwant[/i to be quiet, as the applause and loud appreciation of the very first big hit demonstrates.

Of course, I think it goes without saying that the more you are roared on by a fanatical crowd, the more a team will "get going", that's the nature of sport, anything that gets your adrenaline flowing will raise your game, similar temporary effect of perceived injustices, cheap shot on a teammate, etc.