A tale of me being a bit of a twat.

Last night I left a football match feeling aggrieved about a refereeing decision. Not so much the actual outcome, which was the easiest decision I've seen for ages, but some context I felt had been missed in the previous flare-up.

After the game I happened to be involved in a chat with the referee and one of his assistants. The ref explained what he'd seen (literally everything) and each small decision he'd made before arriving at the conclusion he did.

I'm not delighted about what I saw as the tactical manufacturing of a flashpoint by the opposition (rewarded, eventually, by a red card) but the ref's understanding of the main incident was so much better than mine that I'm honestly a bit embarrassed to have had an opinion it.

All of which is to say:

If, like me, you're inclined towards (a) bias, (b) emotion and (c) shouting, try to keep a lid on it. You're being a dick and they probably didn't get it as wrong as you think.

And we need them. We should all try to remember that.