PREMIERSHIP referee Dermot Gallagher has been talking to local officials. The 49-year-old has refereed in every domestic cup final and is one of the most recognisable men in the job.
He was in the island to officiate in yesterday’s Sutton Trophy game between the Guernsey police and their Jersey counterparts.
On Tuesday night he addressed a selection of the island’s referees at Guernsey Football Association headquarters at the Corbet Field.
He retires at the end of the season after having started in 1985.
‘I talked about myself and what’s happened in 22 years of refereeing and I answered some questions,’ he said.
The GFA’s director in charge of referees, Graham Skuse, was delighted to welcome Gallagher and found his talk extremely beneficial.
‘He’s a very sincere man and he came over very, very well,’ he said.
‘He covered a couple of things like dealing with bad language, which he said will always be there and there will never be anything to end it, and he spoke a lot about his past. I thought it was very, very interesting.’
Gallagher officiated in the police match last year in Jersey.
He was invited to an event where he was the after-dinner speaker and he decided to do so this year as well. The result did not go Guernsey’s way at St Peter’s as the home side lost 5-2.
The Sarnians goal scorers in the defeat were ‘Ziggy’ Zierlinger and Andy Hockey.
Going from refereeing an amateur game in front of a handful of spectators, the next match for Gallagher is Everton’s vital Premiership clash with Fulham tomorrow.
‘It doesn’t matter to me as I treat every game the same,’ he said.
‘When I spoke to the referees, I told them that because every game means the world to the players involved.’
Article posted on 5th April, 2007 - 12.00am
Loading ...
Most Commented: