October Meeting - Guest speaker Michael Oliver
22/10/08 17:29 Filed in: Social
Sunderland society welcomed Micheal Oliver back to Rutland Street for his second visit as guest speaker however this time he wasn’t supported by his father and fellow football league referee Clive!
From left to right - Shaun Hudson, Kieran Mersh, Paul Younger, Michael Oliver, LLoyd Thompson, Chris porter, Gary Jackson, James Simpson
Michael is the youngest football league referee on the national list and is currently enjoying his second season in the middle, and judging by the profile of games & the excellent start Michael has made to the season it would come as no surprise to anyone if this was to be his last season refereeing in the football league before making the inevitable step up to the premier league.
The 23 year old has already been involved in a number of high profile games in his short career including playoff finals as an assistant referee & refereeing the football conference playoff final at Wembley at the end of the 2005-06 season.
This season hasn’t exactly been low profile, with Michael refereeing games such as Derby County Vs Birmingham City, Liverpool Vs Crewe and a live Monday night sky game between Nott’s County and Brentford which we will refer to later!!!
Michael was given a blank canvas with no subject being set to talk about , so after a 10 -15 minute talk on how he got started in refereeing and how he progressed rapidly up the refereeing ladder , Michael chose to talk to the floor about the teamwork involved between the referee , assistant referees & 4th official.
The talk was supported with Michaels own experiences in this area , in particular a live Sky T.V. game between Nott’s County and Brentford only a few weeks ago , where both the assistant referee & Michael had different opinions on a penalty incident.
Guest speaker Michael Oliver being presented with a memento from Dave Morton
After watching the T.V. footage several times Michael opened the discussion to the floor , what was refreshing was the fact that Michael didn’t try and insist his decision was the correct one , he simply asked the members what they thought , the feed back was good with some very good points & views being exchanged.
A good question and answer session followed, again it was good to see our younger members playing an active part in discussions.
All that was left of the evening was for us to witness Michaels beloved Newcastle United concede a late equaliser at the hands of Manchester City , what a shame!!!
For the second month in row Sunderland society has been treated to an excellent guest speaker , it was good to see the experienced Nigel Miller come and talk in September and with a future starlet like Michael speaking this month our society certainly looks to be heading in the right direction.
From left to right - Shaun Hudson, Kieran Mersh, Paul Younger, Michael Oliver, LLoyd Thompson, Chris porter, Gary Jackson, James Simpson
Michael is the youngest football league referee on the national list and is currently enjoying his second season in the middle, and judging by the profile of games & the excellent start Michael has made to the season it would come as no surprise to anyone if this was to be his last season refereeing in the football league before making the inevitable step up to the premier league.
The 23 year old has already been involved in a number of high profile games in his short career including playoff finals as an assistant referee & refereeing the football conference playoff final at Wembley at the end of the 2005-06 season.
This season hasn’t exactly been low profile, with Michael refereeing games such as Derby County Vs Birmingham City, Liverpool Vs Crewe and a live Monday night sky game between Nott’s County and Brentford which we will refer to later!!!
Michael was given a blank canvas with no subject being set to talk about , so after a 10 -15 minute talk on how he got started in refereeing and how he progressed rapidly up the refereeing ladder , Michael chose to talk to the floor about the teamwork involved between the referee , assistant referees & 4th official.
The talk was supported with Michaels own experiences in this area , in particular a live Sky T.V. game between Nott’s County and Brentford only a few weeks ago , where both the assistant referee & Michael had different opinions on a penalty incident.
Guest speaker Michael Oliver being presented with a memento from Dave Morton
After watching the T.V. footage several times Michael opened the discussion to the floor , what was refreshing was the fact that Michael didn’t try and insist his decision was the correct one , he simply asked the members what they thought , the feed back was good with some very good points & views being exchanged.
A good question and answer session followed, again it was good to see our younger members playing an active part in discussions.
All that was left of the evening was for us to witness Michaels beloved Newcastle United concede a late equaliser at the hands of Manchester City , what a shame!!!
For the second month in row Sunderland society has been treated to an excellent guest speaker , it was good to see the experienced Nigel Miller come and talk in September and with a future starlet like Michael speaking this month our society certainly looks to be heading in the right direction.
September Meeting - Guest speaker Nigel Miller
15/10/08 14:34 Filed in: Social
Sunderland Society were delighted to welcome back experienced football league referee Nigel Miller to speak at our September meeting.
Nigel stepped in at very short notice due to our scheduled guest speaker Dave Webb having to withdraw due to work commitments.
Nigel has been a Football league referee for the last six year during which time he has officiated in a lot of high profile games including football league playoffs and passionate local derbies.
Nigel first made his name as a Football league then later a Premier league assistant referee , and his role of honour is endless , officiating in Playoff games , Premier league title deciders , Carling Cup semi finals but without doubt the most impressive string in his bow is officiating in the 2003 FA cup final.
A good Sunderland turn out greeted Nigel as he arrived at the Rutland Street RAOB club , where Nigel spoke in great depth about how he got started in Refereeing and how he progressed up the refereeing ladder starting out in Sunday morning football and working his way up through the Wearside & Northern Leagues taking some knocks and setbacks along the way.
Then with use of the societies high tech VCR and projector!! Nigel played a number of clips of his own games , making us aware of a lot of refereeing good practice but surprisingly even more bad practice which was very refreshing to hear a referee admit when he has cocked up and admit to mistakes which we all make on a regular basis.
Nigel ended his presentation with a good question & answer session in which a lot of our younger members had an active part in , if it wasn’t for the hot buffet getting cold I’m sure Nigel would have been more than happy to continue all night.
I’m sure everyone who was in attendance on the night , including 4 new members & a couple of older members who were rejoining our society , enjoyed the full content of the night and with more quality guest speakers programmed for the months to come the future looks bright for our society.
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Nigel stepped in at very short notice due to our scheduled guest speaker Dave Webb having to withdraw due to work commitments.
Nigel has been a Football league referee for the last six year during which time he has officiated in a lot of high profile games including football league playoffs and passionate local derbies.
Nigel first made his name as a Football league then later a Premier league assistant referee , and his role of honour is endless , officiating in Playoff games , Premier league title deciders , Carling Cup semi finals but without doubt the most impressive string in his bow is officiating in the 2003 FA cup final.
A good Sunderland turn out greeted Nigel as he arrived at the Rutland Street RAOB club , where Nigel spoke in great depth about how he got started in Refereeing and how he progressed up the refereeing ladder starting out in Sunday morning football and working his way up through the Wearside & Northern Leagues taking some knocks and setbacks along the way.
Then with use of the societies high tech VCR and projector!! Nigel played a number of clips of his own games , making us aware of a lot of refereeing good practice but surprisingly even more bad practice which was very refreshing to hear a referee admit when he has cocked up and admit to mistakes which we all make on a regular basis.
Nigel ended his presentation with a good question & answer session in which a lot of our younger members had an active part in , if it wasn’t for the hot buffet getting cold I’m sure Nigel would have been more than happy to continue all night.
I’m sure everyone who was in attendance on the night , including 4 new members & a couple of older members who were rejoining our society , enjoyed the full content of the night and with more quality guest speakers programmed for the months to come the future looks bright for our society.
Don’t forget to subscribe to the RSS Feed to get news updates delivered to you as they happen!