Peter Rogers, Wales

I'm a season ticket holder at a Championship club and have watched football for a number of years.A lot of our home games have seen the away team come to defend.One tactic they use is the goalkeeper hanging on to the ball as long as they can just to waste time.It seems they either get away with it or it may produce a booking in the last few minutes of a game.What I'd like to ask is how you use the 6 second to release the ball rule which was fetched in to make the game more entertaining.Having a word or even booking the keeper would surely stop keepers getting away with it as they are doing hence really spoiling the flow of the game.

I agree that time-wasting is really annoying for everybody involved in the game and referees need to be alert to it and intervene when it becomes apparent, either by way of a quiet word initially, a public rebuke, an award of an in-direct free-kick or even the giving of a yellow card if necessary. Nobody wants surprise decisions, it’s important that referees have credibility in their actions so a warning to a goalkeeper who is taking his time on releasing the ball would make any subsequent punishment of a repeat credible.

Andrew Christian, England

I am a referee but I belive that I am a much better assistant than a actual referee. Is there anyway of getting to the top, ie Premiership, by just being a linesman or do you have to referee aswell?

In order to be an assistant referee within the Professional Game, you need to reach a certain level as a referee (Level 3 which is Contributory League referee). The view of the FA is that by refereeing at a reasonably high level, an assistant referee will have a better understanding and feel for the game. However, once you have reached Level 3 as a referee, and made it onto the Football League Assistant Referee list followed by The Premier League Assistant Referee list, for the top performing officials who are also nominated for the international List, it’s possible to opt to become a specialist assistant concentrating almost exclusively on being an assistant referee. Good luck for your career and the rest of this season. We need top quality assistant referees as much as referees so I hope you can achieve your goal of making it to the top as an assistant.

Simon Lount, New Zealand

Hi Howard. What is the best technique you have for maintatining your concentration? And what areas to you cover in your pre-match talk with your assistants / 4th?

It’s so important to be focussed throughout the entire 90 minutes. If you lose concentration, just for a few seconds, then something can happen which is missed and causes you a big problem. Keep reminding yourself throughout the match that anything can happen. Some referees use ‘trigger’ words or actions which help them re-focus, things like putting an elastic band on their wrist and ‘snapping’ it against their skin every now and then to remind them to focus. Also, it’s important that you re-focus everytime something happens in the game which could change the way it’s being played, such as goals, substitutions, yellow and red cards etc. All these incidents are likely to change the game in some way, to heighten your awareness at these points. I work regularly with the same assistants but we still have a pre-match discussion before every match, to talk about teamwork, the actual match itself and what to look out for, and also to cover anything topical that might have happened recently in our games or games that we have seen. It’s important to keep learning and trying to continually improve.

Callum Sharp, England

I was wondering If you could clear up a quirey I had with the L.O.A.F . After the Wigan Vs Newcastle game I was on the 606 forum, and some fans were annoyed that the foul on Heskey had started outside the penalty area, continued into it, and then when heskey went to ground, the penalty was given. They wanted to know why a penalty, not a free kick was given. I pointed them in the direction of the advice and guidance which says that If a defender starts holding an attacker outside the penalty area but continues holding him inside the penatly area, the referee shall award a penalty. This is clearly applying advantage. my question is, why in this case does the law suggest that if the advantage does not ocrrur, the last part of the offence is penalised, yet in all other advantages, should that advantage not occur, the original offence is penalised? surley this is inconsistent?

I can remember the situation to which you refer and this was, in my opinion, an excellent piece of refereeing. We are given clear guidelines in relation to holding offences, and that if holding starts outside the penalty area and continues into it, a penalty kick should be awarded, as was the case at Wigan Athletic. In this situation, whilst the initial offence is not immediately penalised and the attacking player is given a chance to break away from the defender who is holding, the offence does still continue and when that holding continues into the penalty area and finishes there, that is where the offence is penalised, hence the award of a penalty kick. In other situations, such as regular fouls, the offence starts and finishes in one place and a referee can wait to see if an advantage develops but if it does not, he returns to penalise the original offence at the only place where it occurred and that is the difference.