The referee has a duty to enforce the Laws of the Game and although players will not always agree with his decisions, they should be accepted, however, as we know, it doesn't always work out this way.

An interesting incident has reoccurred in a number of games recently where a free kick has been awarded to the defending team in their penalty area but the ball must leave the penalty area before it is in play. If the ball is played by either a defender or an attacking player before it leaves the area, the defending team must retake the free-kick again.

On the occasions when the ball is played before it leaves the penalty area, players have often disputed the decision by the referee to retake the free kick.

In most games where this happens, players tend to reluctantly accept the referees decision but they are not convinced and assume that he has made a mistake.

In a recent game a defender took exception to the referee blowing the whistle for the free kick to be retaken and kicked the ball 50 yards up field in disgust. For this he was cautioned for showing dissent. His teammates disputed the referee's decision and reckoned their player was being cautioned because of an error that the referee had made.

When the free kick was eventually retaken the referee again had to stop play to administer another caution to a defender who had directed a comment towards the ref that isn't printable here.

Due to one incident we now had two players cautioned and a number of others not very happy because of a correct decision the referee had made, as they all believed the ref had made an error.

Incidents like this happen during most games and even though the referee has made a correct decision, in accordance with the laws of the game, players and officials will often question the referee throughout the remainder of the game.

If you have played in or been at a game where there has been an unusual incident which the referee has had to deal with, please let me know. You can contact me by logging on to the Darlington Referees Society Web site www.darlingtonreferees.freeserve.co.uk.