A HATHERLEIGH man achieved many a football fan?s dream when he ran out at a Premiership football ground ? but Andy Bennett wasn?t playing, he was the linesman!
Andy, 32, was running the line at Fratton Park, Portsmouth, as Pompey Reserves took on their arch-rivals Southampton.
Andy has been refereeing and running the line for around eight years and has now reached the status of a class 3 referee, the next rung below Nationwide League football.
He said there was a large crowd to watch the reserve game, with around 2,500 Portsmouth fans in the main stand ? no Saints fans were allowed into the ground following trouble at last year?s match between the teams? reserves.
The large crowd was due in some part to the presence of exhilarating first team forward Lomano Lua Lua in the home side. He was joined by combative midfielder Aloui Cisse, no stranger to first team action himself.
Andy said the opening minutes of the derby match were incident packed. ?It was 1-1 after 90 seconds,? he said. ?We had a contentious decision from the kick-off with Southampton being given a penalty, and I thought ?Here we go?.
?Then Portsmouth scored and in the second half, their goalkeeper was sent off.?
He said it had been a ?cracking? game and he had been very excited to be officiating at a Premiership ground.
Andy?s performance was not just being scrutinised by the spectators, his evening?s work was also analysed by an experienced FA assessor, who happened to be former Premiership ref Paul Durkin.
Andy had had a busy week. On Tuesday night he ran the line at St James Park for the Nationwide Conference clash between two former league sides Exeter City and Barnet.
Another bumper crowd was at the game which marked Exeter boss Eammon Dolan?s final match before leaving to take up a new post at Reading while Barnet were sitting at the top of the table.
Andy used to play for Hatherleigh in the Exeter and Devon League, but following a number of injuries he decided to take up refereeing in his mid-twenties.
He said he was now at something of a crossroads in the game, and could choose to specialise in either being a referee or a linesman, but he was hoping eventually to move up to the Nationwide League.
?There?s probably more opportunities as a linesman, and I am one of the younger ones coming through,? he said.
Andy fits in referee and linesman duties as well as working as a retained firefighter based in Hatherleigh, but also provides day-time cover in Moretonhampstead where he works as a joiner.