A referee on match day

One screen, one thumb, and no signal needed. Everything you record is held on the phone and sent when there is a bar of reception, so the pitch never waits for a spinner.

Open your game

If you have an account, the game you have been given is at the top of every page: Yours to run, with the two teams, the time and your role. Tap it and the screen opens on that game. If you are a volunteer with no account, open the referee screen and show the code on it to whoever runs the day; your phone is approved once for the season.

The referee screen listing today's games — Your games, or the whole card if you run the competition.

Start the clock

Start blows the whistle and runs the clock. It stops at the end of the period and added time counts up on its own underneath, so you always see both. Press +1 added min and it says "+2 min added" from the moment you press it, not when the half runs over.

It will not end a half by itself unless you have set added time: a clock that stops a match on its own is worse than one that waits for you.

Record what happens

Goal, substitution, penalty, yellow, red, not walking, note. A card fills the screen as a solid colour so you can hold it up, and only asks who it was for when you tap it. Two yellows for the same player becomes a red on its own and says so.

The referee screen during a game — Big buttons, one thumb, the score and the clock always visible.

If you are the head referee

You get the whole card of your tournament rather than the games somebody remembered to give you: every fixture in every grade of it, on the same screen, and you can run any of them. Until an organiser names somebody, the head referee is whoever runs the tournament.

Not walking

Walking football only. The screen counts them per team, and on the fourth it holds up "PENALTY — 4th not walking foul by Riverside Ramblers, penalty to Beachside Strollers", whistles, and then opens the penalty already pointed at the side taking it.

Extra time and the shootout

At full time, Extra time starts another period. If it comes to kicks, open Shootout: the takers are already there in the order the team sheet set them, and you tap Scored or Missed for whoever is up. It stops the moment the other side cannot catch up, and says who won.

Finish, and see it

Finish sends the result. The link under it opens the page everybody else reads, so you can check what you wrote down rather than take it on trust: the score, the timeline, the shootout kick by kick.

The end of a match timeline on a phone, including the shootout — Everything you recorded, in the order you recorded it. The table moves at the same moment.

If the signal goes

Keep going. Everything is written on the phone first and the screen never blocks on the network. When reception comes back it syncs by itself, and sending the same thing twice changes nothing, so "try again" is always safe. The screen even opens with no signal at all.