Quote: BartonFlyer "So there you have it - unless the referee actually asks the touch judge for help the only thing they do is flag "ball in touch" or to indicate foul play if the referee hasn't seen it.
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And most referees wont ask as its probably seen as a weakness and marked down by the referee director of performance @ the game.
Dont forget the referees have to achieve certain levels of performance to continue to ref @ the top level and keep their full time job as a referee if they are seen to be passing the book to a part time linesmen to make a call the powers that be will this and a question mark over their ability and may stop them achieving their dream of refereeing finals and internationals.
So rather than encouraged to use all the support around him to make the correct decition he'll just make a gut decition on what he saw right or wrong when its not on TV in 12 hours time nobody remembers the incident the result still stands and you move on to the next game.
As for spotting forward passes from behind the goals you look for two thing
1) Where the attackers feet are when the ball leaves the passers hands and how many steps has to take to recieve it can be made easier with pitch markings
2) The position of the throwers and catchers hands in relation to his body and away they are from their body the more forwad the pass
There is another more complicated way by looking at the positioning of the back of recievers hands but without examples its a bit card to explain.
Leeds are a champion team and shouldnt need any favours when putting salford to bed, in a way the top teams are the top teams for one reason they can do stuff quicker than the other teams if that includes the odd forward pass then more power to their elbow you earn the right to that type of luck thats why they are near the top