The Staffordshire Sentinel may not be the place you would think to look for comment of referees and the way they are treated but this week it might just tell you something important about modern football.

A report on a reserve cup match started with these three paragraphs:

“Andrew Davies paid female referee Sarah Garratt the biggest compliment he could by being booked for back chatting yesterday.
Davies, a player with plenty to say during games, made no attempt to bite his tongue just because of the referee's gender.
It cost him a yellow card in the closing stages of yesterday's stalemate at Clayton Wood, but struck a kind of blow for the acceptance of female officials.”

And in that few sentences, you can perhaps learn a lot of the current attitudes towards referees.

So a Premier League player swears at a referee and that’s somehow a good thing? The report was, I accept trying to be light-hearted, but wouldn’t it be better for all concerned if no one swore at refs despite their gender? Isn’t that the point?

The inference being that Davies treated Sarah Garratt (above) as “like any other ref” because he swore at her, “so she must be as good as a man.” But that’s totally and utterly skewed.

At Referees Jobs we will happily supply referees to any league and any organisation on one proviso and one proviso only: That everyone regardless of colour, gender or sexuality, is treated fairly and with respect.

And that’s how it should be. No one wants another Sian Massey situation, but equally no one deserves to be sworn at as part of some bizarre initiation ceremony.

And, that whatever The Sentinel thinks, is no joke.