Last weekend I received five phone calls, one at 8pm on Saturday night, asking if I was available to referee games on the Sunday.

One secretary told me he had telephoned over 20 referees on the Saturday morning; the majority had already accepted appointments whilst others were unavailable. Last weekend was not unusual as there is a shortage of referees at grassroots level, not just within this region but also nationally. This results in games being cancelled or matches being refereed by volunteers, if one can be found.

Although there are successful recruitment campaigns undertaken by all Referees' Societies in the region - last year about 150 new referees passed their examination with the Durham FA - there is a serious problem with retention of referees. The reason is not surprising, referees will not tolerate the abuse that is levelled at the modern day referee both on and off the field, therefore local referees are disappearing from the game in large numbers with obvious consequences.

What is the answer? The answer lies with everyone within the game; they must ensure that referees are correctly treated and not alienated.

As we are all aware, even when a referee is 100 per cent correct in his decision he will not please everyone all of the time. Also referees are expected to get every single decision correct and we all know that there is not a person alive today that will never make a mistake. Unfortunately in many cases, the referee is the fall guy and is very often blamed when decisions go against a club.

We have all listened to debates on television where former pro footballers see the same incident in different ways and this is with the benefit of action replays from many different angles. However, only one opinion matters and that is why a referee is appointed.

Many people are willing to criticise referees but very few will take up the whistle because they know it is not an easy job. Mick McCarthy last week summed up the position when he was talking about a few recent refereeing decisions, saying: "I would not want to be a referee for a gold pig, nevermind a gold clock."

You can contact me about any refereeing matter either by logging onto the Darlington Referees' Society website www.darlingtonreferees.freeserve.co.uk or by writing to Local Heroes.

George Cornforth.