Much has been said and written about young referees recently and the amount of stick they get from parents on the touchline at youth games.

I would like to throw my hat into this debating ring after spending a Sunday involved with four youth semi-finals at Woodingdean with 14-year-old referees Byron Hubbard and Steven Penton.

Sometimes I wonder if the parents even know the rules of the game. Sometimes I wonder if they are simply shouting for the sake of it and don't realise the consequences of their actions.

A rather curious incident happened in a match which Byron was taking charge of.

Steven flagged an offside and the referee awarded a free-kick. The goalkeeper, who took it, subsequently fluffed the kick and the parents got on the referee's back because they felt, because the ball had gone through to him in the first place after the offside was flagged, that he should have played on.

You just can't win sometimes. I mean who is to blame really? The referee or the keeper's inability to kick the ball. I would say it is neither. Both are very young and can do without the stick.

Another funny one was seeing a parent in a complete rage because he thought there was a blatant offside. He was standing about 40 yards away from the line of play, so how he could have made a judgement is anyone's guess.

Comments in these situations are completely unnecessary. Everyone on the pitch, including the lads in black, should be encouraged. We need to get kids playing football and refereeing football. While they are young and keen, we should not have people old enough to know better ruining these kids' fun.

What the parents don't realise is that there are people such as myself watching these children officiate. After the match, in a laid-back atmosphere, we will tell the young officials what they did right and what they did wrong.

We will offer them advice on how to improve. Then we will see how they get on after hearing our words of encouragement and constructive criticism.

Leave it to the experts - those who are experienced at officiating and have been involved with the game at a much higher level.

They will learn more from us than a raging parent who is upset his Johnny hasn't been awarded a penalty, which he or she thought was blatant.

Generally it is not too bad, but when you get situations like a recent one where a manager took his team off the park because he thought the young official was being influenced by the crowd then it starts getting very depressing.

Youth sport is about learning - not slating!

Referees are welcome to contribute a column to us. Simply send it to us with your contact name and telephone number at justin.allen@argus-btn.co.uk.