Final whistle blows for Pearson

It's what you get, he says, for a quarter of a century in refereeing.

He has been a linesman in the World Cup semi-final and in European, FA and Football League Cup finals, refereed in four Football league play-offs, controlled this year's LDV Vans final, blows out with the crucial match between Wigan and West Ham.

"Not bad for a colliery lad," he says and by "colliery" he means Horden Colliery, where his dad was a miner, where he has spent the first 48 years of his life and which he has no intention of abandoning.

Roy himself only once went down the pit, though, and once was more than enough. He's a facilities engineer at a factory in Peterlee.

While a FIFA linesman he was also a Northern League referee - Murton one week, Milan the next. Sandwiched in his CV between the 1994 FA Cup semi-final and European Cup final is the Durham Challenge Cup final, Bishop Auckland v Spennymoor, and it's to his roots that he will cheerfully return.

"I hope to get some games on a Sunday morning, some in the youth league, perhaps midweek in the Northern League second division," he says. "I've had so much enjoyment out of football, I really do want to put something back."

High authority may also be offered the benefit of his advice. "I wish they'd just leave the laws of the game alone for a couple of seasons, let the dust settle and let people get used to it, but I don't suppose it's going to happen, not the way Mr Blatter goes on."

Any other changes? "We aren't allowed at the highest level to referee using common sense. It's very rigid, and to the detriment of the game.

"They want you to man manage but when you do man manage they say why didn't you do so-and-so. Somehow it's about wanting their cake and eating it."

Advice to newcomers? "It's about commitment, you'll get there if you want to do it. You can be made into a good referee. The main thing is to go out and enjoy it, respect the players even if they don't respect you."

Most embarrassing moment? "FA trophy semi-final, Guiseley v Runcorn, running backwards, trying to be clever, fell over a player and you can guess where I landed. The crowd absolutely loved it."

Next season he hopes also to become a Football League referee assessor. "By then," he says, "I might be poacher turned gamekeeper."

He became a referee in 1978 after twice breaking the same ankle playing for Hartlepool Steel Works, began in the Hetton Youth League, was appointed to the Football League line ten years later.

It was while toeing the line that he became particularly noticed, his style once compared - by the wife of an FA Council member - to a little toy soldier. He took it as the compliment it was intended.

"I always stopped, flagged and went, while most people flag while running. Stopping is much harder. Being compared to a toy soldier was a nice thing to say and she said it to some of the right people."

Promoted to the FIFA list in 1993, he was chosen with referee Phil Don for the following year's World Cup and invited to a week's briefing - "brain washing," he calls it - in Dallas.

It might have been the reason that Oldham didn't win the 1994 FA Cup.

"The World Cup people told us they wanted goals - if in doubt, don't flag. I lived with that for four years."

Two minutes left in the Man United v Oldham semi-final, Athletic leading 1-0, a cross came in from the wing while Bryan Robson was coming back from an offside position. "Before Dallas I would have flagged him, I didn't and Man United equalised.

"They won the replay and won the Cup."

In the World Cup finals he lined five games, including both quarter and semi-finals. When FIFA decreed that if he became a Football League referee he couldn't continue on the international line he chose the middle ground and was accepted, second time of asking in 1995.

"I didn't choose a career as a linesman, it just got created. Every time I had a flag in my hand, I seemed to do very well."

Running the line is more difficult than refereeing, he believes, because the linesman must always be level with the second last defender. "It requires enormous concentration. There are more frequently difficult decisions on the line."

The rain's cascading off the conservatory as we talk, Roy's Sunderland slippers both a testament to his own club loyalty and red rag to his wife and three football mad sons, all of whom support Newcastle.

It began in the Kevin Keegan era, when he ran the Magpie line six times in a season, two free tickets each time. The boys fell victim to the KK charisma.

After compulsory retirement at 48 - "I don't feel too old, if someone offered me another year or two, I'd take it" - he hopes to see a little more of Sunderland. "Even if they go up they won't survive with that team; everyone knows there are problem areas."

He also plans to restore his British racing green Mini and to spend more time with the family. "Fifty per cent of my Friday nights I've been heading south, staying alone in a Travel Inn somewhere, getting back at nine o'clock on the Saturday.

"I've had a wonderful run and I've been preparing myself mentally for retirement. We're quite looking forward to having a social life again."

Regrets? "I'd like to have been a Premiership referee but probably didn't get on the Football League soon enough but you can't have regrets when you've achieved all that I have."

The little toy soldier now professes himself demob happy - been there, done that, got any amount of referee shirts. For a colliery lad, it's not been bad at all.

Mark Clattenburg, meanwhile, is hoping at 29 to become the Premiership's youngest ever referee.

An Albany Northern League match official just four years ago and now highly regarded in the Nationwide League, he expects to hear later this month if his personal promotion bid has been successful.

Mark moved recently from Chester-le-Street to a flat on Newcastle Quayside - but not, he insists, to take advantage of the renowned riparian night life.

"I'm afraid I don't see much of the bars and restaurants," he says. "I love it here in the summer, but when I say I'm going out for the night, it's usually to the gym."

Ken Ridden, who began on 3/6d a match in the Hartlepool Church League second division and ended as the FA's director of refereeing, returns to his roots tonight to receive an award for 50 years service to refereeing.

It'll be presented at Durham FA's annual dinner in West Auckland, which briefly we plan to gatecrash.

More of good Ridden on Tuesday.

One to forget for miserable Synners

Last Saturday to Billingham Synthonia v Penrith, the Synners' 2,000th Northern League game since joining up after the war.

They replaced General Chemicals (Imperial Chemical Industries) Billingham FC who - since all that was a bit of a polyunsaturated mouthful - became known as Billingham South instead.

The first game was a 5-4 win at Shildon after being 3-0 down, a scoreline recalled by Synners' stalwart Peter Lax as his side again trailed by three goals. That's when Penrith scored their fourth.

"It looks like you're fielding the same team an' all," said Jeff Ward, there to assess the referee.

Also in attendance was 78-year-old Bill Jeffs, who played in the first match in 1945 before - like bold Sir John - going off to Palestine to fight in foreign wars.

Subsequently in Crook Town's 1954 Amateur Cup winning team and coach to the Whitby Town side which reached the 1965 final, he's now on crutches after a hip replacement but hopes to be back on the golf course before the summer's out. "It's just one of my handicaps," said Bill.

History, alas, failed to repeat itself. Though Billingham fought back, the bottom of the table Cumbrians won 5-4. Plucky Penrith; miserable Synners.

Another feller feeling tip-top after a hip op, Norton and Stockton Ancients manager Ray Morton has failed in his bid to buy Ralph "Bullet" Smith's amateur international cap and 1932-33 Northern League championship medal.

Bullet, as we have been recalling, spent 15 years at Stockton - nicknamed the Ancients - but may best be remembered for advising the FA of the most suitable location for their losers' medal after the 1933 Amateur Cup final. His frankness earned him a year's suspension.

The cap realised £200, the medal £500 - "a bit beyond our range," says Ray, who'd love to hear from anyone else with Stockton memorabilia. He can be e-mailed at morton353hotmail.com

The Demon Donkey Dropper of Eryholme, the column's favourite cricketer, has again had the opposition in the whatnots - 8-30 against East Cowton on Saturday after coming on second change.

The self-effacing Charlie Walker has, as usual, been unavailable. So what's the old lad's secret?

"I think everyone believes the ball is going to spin and I don't suppose Charlie's spun one in his life," says Darlington and District League secretary Brian Dobinson.

"The mistake is to try to hit him out of the ground, because if you miss it, Charlie hits the stumps."

The Demon Donkey Dropper is believed to be 65.

Michael Cooper, the young Crook cricketer who became the club's only centurion last season, will be remembered tomorrow when the club's second team plays Shildon Railway II - against whom he scored his hundred.

The trophy which Michael's parents have put up for annual competition will be contested for the first time. He died, tragically, last December.

Tuesday's paper carried details of the Yours Forever Saunders Cricket Cup, won last season by Horden who found themselves with a bye in the final. It must not be assumed, however, that this year's winners will hold the thing in perpetuity. Yours Forever is the sponsor, a photography business in South Shields.

Just two months ago, we entrained to Telford to see Sunderland lad Mick Jones - preparing his side for the FA Cup fourth round tie with Millwall.

When the rain stopped, Millwall won and now anticipate the final. Mick, much travelled, has been sacked after working the last few weeks without wages after the club went into administration.

"I thought I'd be the last person to leave, not the first," he says. "I didn't anticipate the club getting rid of me and it has come as a big shock."

Telford's statement inevitably see things differently. "We have parted company by mutual consent."

And finally...

THE only English football club to win a major European trophy in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s (Backtrack, April 30) was Spurs.

Alf Hutchinson in Darlington today seeks the identity of the member of Sunderland's 1973 FA Cup winning side who, five years later, was in the Blyth Spartans team which reached the fifth round.

The column returns on Tuesday.

Published: 07/04/2004