The whistle against my own team

Text: an original contemporary sporting-memoir-style practice extract.

I had refereed three matches before the club asked me to take charge of a game involving my old team. I knew the captain’s voice before I saw his face. He greeted me by the nickname nobody outside that dressing room used. For a moment, the whistle felt like something I had borrowed rather than something I was entitled to carry.

The disputed tackle came early. I saw a foot catch the opponent’s ankle after the ball had gone. I blew the whistle and pointed against my old team. Their captain spread his hands. He did not shout. He said my nickname again, quietly enough to make it harder to ignore. I repeated the decision and walked towards the place for the kick, watching the grass because I did not want to see which faces were looking at me.

Afterwards, an assessor said the decision was correct. That settled the tackle; it did not settle the afternoon. In the clubhouse, the captain offered me tea and asked whether I had become too important to answer to my old name. I laughed, then wished I had not. Impartiality had required one clear gesture on the pitch and a much less clear conversation off it.

In this extract, the writer tries to convey the difficulty of acting impartially.

Evaluate how successfully this is achieved. Support your views with detailed reference to the extract.