Mick's Musings
Tue 16th September 2014 | General | By Mick Storey
ALL I'M ASKING...IS FOR A LITTLE RESPECT...
I read with interest the article on the League website last week, in which the League Vice-Chairman John Cowley talked about the League’s Respect campaign.
For those who haven’t read it, I suggest you do, as it’s an interesting piece and it gave an update on the clubs who have managed to play in games without any of their players seeing yellow or red cards.
There was also mention of the League’s intention to clamp down on behaviour in dug outs too, one of my particular irritations, but more of that another time.
I thought it was an article that was thoroughly heartening in its content, although there is one minor point I would like to get off my chest first. You see, for anyone of my advancing years, showing respect, and indeed tolerance and consideration for people, is something that I would expect to happen automatically.
In my youthful days, if you didn’t respect authority you could expect serious consequences. So the idea of rewarding good behaviour, when you are from a generation that believes people should behave in a decent civilised manner automatically anyway, doesn’t always sit comfortably with me.
However, I must also qualify that by saying that I accept the so-called halcyon days weren’t always as great as people of my generation make out. To this day, I still detest the thought of having experienced life in a school classroom with some of my old teachers, whose implementation of discipline and insistence on good behaviour bordered on the psychopathic.
But I digress. Taking this chain of thought back to a footballing perspective, if you look back at some of the players from the past, I believe we can now reflect that the “hard as nails” defenders who went out with the aim of kicking the skilful players off the park to try and stop them doing any damage to their team, maybe aren’t the heroes we thought they were at the time. No names, but I’m sure a few players will come to everyone’s mind.
I think everyone would agree that some of these types wouldn’t last five minutes on the pitch these days before seeing a yellow or red card, but equally these days, cards are issued for actions that would have been considered trivial in the past. Let’s be honest, it has never been harder to avoid yellow and red cards in football than it is today.
So, that’s why I think Mr Cowley’s article is heartening, and for several reasons. First, the League is taking positive action in trying to promote better behaviour on the field. Secondly, they are only too happy to highlight the good news stories. And best of all, there are plenty of them.
In this day and age, it really is impressive that teams have been able to play in four or five games and not receive a single yellow card, never mind a red one. The teams involved are mentioned in Mr Cowley’s article and are there for all to see, go and have a look if you haven’t already.
And let’s not forget the clubs who crop up in the list of games that didn’t see a yellow card, especially those who appear more than once.
It might be that they were close to going four or five games without a booking too, but in one of their other games, perhaps an inexperienced young player accidentally mis-timed a tackle, took the booking and held his hands up accepting his mistake? One simple mistake like that could reflect on the whole team’s record, so let’s remember that too.
And before anyone mentions it, yes, there is a possibility that an over-zealous match official might have an impact on the number of cards a team receives in a game too – but let’s not start getting negative in the midst of so much positivity.
I applaud all those clubs mentioned in Mr Cowley’s article, and for all the others that are not – why don’t you try a bit harder to appear in the next list?
Until the next time………
Mick
The views expressed by Mick Storey in this column are his own, and do not represent the views of the North West Counties Football League Management Committee or League officers.
If you want to send your comments on this article to Mick, you can contact him on Twitter - @mickeystorey.
Mick's Musings
Tue 16th September 2014 | General
By Mick Storey
ALL I'M ASKING...IS FOR A LITTLE RESPECT...
I read with interest the article on the League website last week, in which the League Vice-Chairman John Cowley talked about the League’s Respect campaign.
For those who haven’t read it, I suggest you do, as it’s an interesting piece and it gave an update on the clubs who have managed to play in games without any of their players seeing yellow or red cards.
There was also mention of the League’s intention to clamp down on behaviour in dug outs too, one of my particular irritations, but more of that another time.
I thought it was an article that was thoroughly heartening in its content, although there is one minor point I would like to get off my chest first. You see, for anyone of my advancing years, showing respect, and indeed tolerance and consideration for people, is something that I would expect to happen automatically.
In my youthful days, if you didn’t respect authority you could expect serious consequences. So the idea of rewarding good behaviour, when you are from a generation that believes people should behave in a decent civilised manner automatically anyway, doesn’t always sit comfortably with me.
However, I must also qualify that by saying that I accept the so-called halcyon days weren’t always as great as people of my generation make out. To this day, I still detest the thought of having experienced life in a school classroom with some of my old teachers, whose implementation of discipline and insistence on good behaviour bordered on the psychopathic.
But I digress. Taking this chain of thought back to a footballing perspective, if you look back at some of the players from the past, I believe we can now reflect that the “hard as nails” defenders who went out with the aim of kicking the skilful players off the park to try and stop them doing any damage to their team, maybe aren’t the heroes we thought they were at the time. No names, but I’m sure a few players will come to everyone’s mind.
I think everyone would agree that some of these types wouldn’t last five minutes on the pitch these days before seeing a yellow or red card, but equally these days, cards are issued for actions that would have been considered trivial in the past. Let’s be honest, it has never been harder to avoid yellow and red cards in football than it is today.
So, that’s why I think Mr Cowley’s article is heartening, and for several reasons. First, the League is taking positive action in trying to promote better behaviour on the field. Secondly, they are only too happy to highlight the good news stories. And best of all, there are plenty of them.
In this day and age, it really is impressive that teams have been able to play in four or five games and not receive a single yellow card, never mind a red one. The teams involved are mentioned in Mr Cowley’s article and are there for all to see, go and have a look if you haven’t already.
And let’s not forget the clubs who crop up in the list of games that didn’t see a yellow card, especially those who appear more than once.
It might be that they were close to going four or five games without a booking too, but in one of their other games, perhaps an inexperienced young player accidentally mis-timed a tackle, took the booking and held his hands up accepting his mistake? One simple mistake like that could reflect on the whole team’s record, so let’s remember that too.
And before anyone mentions it, yes, there is a possibility that an over-zealous match official might have an impact on the number of cards a team receives in a game too – but let’s not start getting negative in the midst of so much positivity.
I applaud all those clubs mentioned in Mr Cowley’s article, and for all the others that are not – why don’t you try a bit harder to appear in the next list?
Until the next time………
Mick
The views expressed by Mick Storey in this column are his own, and do not represent the views of the North West Counties Football League Management Committee or League officers.
If you want to send your comments on this article to Mick, you can contact him on Twitter - @mickeystorey.
