Twenty first division referees were in action last week for the first round of the cup, but contrary to previous years there was little to report. Poor old Téllez Sánchez got the worst of it though when an idiot in the Castellón crowd threw an object (reportedly a battery unit from a mobile phone) at his head after he awarded a penalty to their opponents Valencia. The referee and his colleagues decided to abandon the match there and then, and the remaining seven minutes will be played within the next few weeks, starting with the penalty kick. The aggressor was caught though, and presumably will be charged with assault....... and battery?

Referees are human and can of course make mistakes, some of which affect the outcome of matches and some of which don't. Two decisions this weekend fell into the latter category, with González Vázquez showing a yellow card to Zaragoza's Ponzio when the foul was committed by Cuartero. Being a second yellow, the Argentine midfielder had to leave the field, but luckily his side held on to win. And Losantos Omar disallowed a Fernando Torres goal for a foul which only he saw, but Jorge ensured that justice was done with the winning goal in injury time. The same was not true though in the game between Osasuna and Real Murcia, where Daúden Ibáñez only gave a yellow card to Moha for a tackle on Maciel which left him with his leg broken in three places, but then produced two reds for Murcia players after the interval. The visitors lost the game thanks to a late goal from Bakayoko.

All of this pales into insignificance though compared to what happened to Real Madrid's C team in their third division home game against Tres Cantos. Referee Sánchez Blazquez produced no less than 21 yellow cards and five reds, four of which for the locals. The official was probably upset because the players laughed at him when he left his bright red whistle in the dressing room at half time and had to delay kick off while he went back to look for it. That'll teach 'em! . (21.10.03)