Cautionary Tale

Officials used to be restrained in their use of cards, which wasn’t always for the good of the game

- Richard Mason

One Thursday in the 1950s the headline on the sports page of the Woking News & Mail was that the local team’s star player, Charlie Mortimore, had been booked the previous Saturday. Today the headline news would be a game without a booking. If such things were relatively unusual then, sendings off were even rarer. I did not see one until my 85th game, in September 1959, when Gateshead left-back Ken Moffitt departed in a 3-2 defeat at Aldershot. To nobody’s surprise, it was for “arguing with the referee” and not for serious foul play. Players who had been sent off were treated almost as pariahs. During their suspensions, which were measured in days and not in matches, they had to stay away from their clubs and they were not paid. This might in part explain why referees were reluctant to use the ultimate sanction.