MUCH has been written in these columns during the past nine months about refereeing standards, so it would be very remiss of me not to have the 'official' final say!

Essex man in the middle John Hopkins controlled Saturday's game between Evesham and Bromsgrove excellently but again he was let down by having to officiate "by the book".

Common sense isn't in referees - or assistants - vocabulary these days. A match that hardly contained a bad foul saw nine yellow cards and one red administered!

Three cautions would have sufficed but Mr Hopkins decided otherwise while accepting the version of an assistant who clearly only saw Steve Duncan's "hands off" reaction to being kicked, shoved and slapped after United's fourth goal.

Of course referees have to be seen to be applying criteria laid down by people with even less common sense but it's a worry then when they get verbally abused with a hail of expletives that, in this instance, Mr Hopkins didn't feel it necessary to send Arthur Appleton off the field!

Let's hope standards improve next term but I somehow doubt it!