Five referees and three mentors from the Cumberland FA Referees Academy Scheme recently took part in an inter-county exchange with the Liverpool FA.

With the inaugural exchange trip to Lancashire taking place only a month earlier, and with that enjoyable experience still fresh in the minds, the mouth-watering opportunity to officiate at the famous Liverpool FC Academy was an eagerly awaited fixture in everyone’s diary.

In fact, it was a minor miracle that the games actually went ahead as there had been heavy rainfall in the week leading up to the fixtures and the Club had contacted the Liverpool FA to say the weekend was a ‘wash out’.

However, due to the great efforts of Brian Tattan (LFA) and Academy staff at the football club, the games were rescheduled onto the synthetic playing surfaces (both indoor and outdoor pitches) especially so that the ‘exchange’ venture could take place.

As per the previous exchange trip to the Bolton Academy (in conjunction with the Lancashire FA) the selected referees on this trip were supported by mentors (experienced officials and instructors) from both the local County FA and the Cumberland FA, each giving advice and encouragement during the cold but bright Sunday morning fixture with, ironically, Bolton Wanderers FC.

With five age groups to cover on the day, and the fact that the grass was ‘off limits’, some games overlapped and some staggered to accommodate teams at U9s, U10s, U11s, U12s and U14s level.

Apart from the Under 12s game, which was given to a young Liverpool FA Academy Referee, the other match officials came from the Cumberland FA, and they were as follows:-

• Under 14s: John Mulligan, Ant Backhouse, Phil Murphy
• Under 12s: Wayne Cartmel
• Under 11s: Wayne Cartmel
• Under 9s: Sam Atkinson

The three lads on the Under 14 match rotated the role of referee, each having a third of the match in the middle, in order to gain invaluable experience and benefit from the qualified advice being given from the sidelines.

All five officials had travelled down the day before with Cumberland FA mentors Scott Taylor, Chris Backhouse and Kenny Stevenson, staying at a Travelodge on the edge Warrington, which provided the group with an excellent opportunity to experience an overnight ‘stopover’ and socialise over a meal.

Like the previous trip, this was great experience for the lucky lads chosen and hopefully each can implement some of the development points picked up over the weekend and become better referees.