Female assistant goes unnoticed
Tuesday 25th January 2011, 8:00AM GMT.
With all the furore over female officials, the appearance of one of only three women referee’s assistants in England went almost unnoticed at a local non-league ground.
Shrewsbury-based Sasa Ihringova, who was fourth official when in-the-spotlight Sian Massey ran the line at the Shrewsbury v Bury game in November 2009, refereed Rushall Olympic’s 2-1 win at Sutton Coldfield Town in the Evo-Stik League First Division South.
Ihringova, who has been officiating for 15 years, knows Massey well and believes Sky may take further action over the sexist comments of her by Andy Gray and Richard Keys.
The 35-year-old said: “It’s sad that there are people who think like that.
“I’m sure Sky will deal with them further if they think their public image will suffer.
“Sian deserves to be there and proved that with the brilliant decision she made.”
As for last night’s game – the second of three in four days for Slovakia-born Ihringova, who runs the line at Hereford’s home game with Morecambe tonight – things went smoothly.
She said: “It was a local derby so there were a few tackles but nothing malicious and my assistant said to me at half-time that the players were extraordinarily well behaved.”
Rushall came from behind to claim the double over Sutton.
Mark Bellingham headed Sutton in front in the 26th minute.
Debutant Chris Sterling equalised two minutes later.
Richard Blythe hit the winner nine minutes after the break.
UK Sport
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