SATURDAY’S game was a perfect example of the pressure that everyone is under at this time of the season.

We have been under pressure all year, trying to pick up points here and there just to make up a gap.

Gillingham are trying to get into the play-offs so there was pressure for them as well.

They are a massive club at this level who have been relegated and want to get straight back up.

The referee added to that pressure by making some silly decisions and doing some silly things.

But referees are under pressure, too, and I can understand their frustration because they are not allowed to referee in the way that they do, perhaps, through pre-season.

Then games are refereed freely and the officials can use their own thoughts and opinions.

If referees were allowed to do that in the main part of the season, then there would be an opportunity for them to become better referees.

We are asked to submit reports and referees have to meet an 8.2 average score from the assessor sitting in the stand – if they don’t meet that then they will be demoted.

To be asked to hit an 8.2 average means that a referee has to do things he would not perhaps do – give bookings that maybe he wouldn’t – if he had the freedom to go and referee like he wanted to.

Referees are dictated to too much about what they must do – they have to give bookings for this and that; that incident has to be a foul.

It’s not a question of not having played the game; some of the best referees never played the game but it comes with experience.

Maybe some of the referees who have worked their way higher up are then maybe allowed to referee a little more freely.

At our level, they are scrutinised to such an extent by the assessors that they are unable to become a good referee; they become a robot referee.

On Saturday’s Football Focus, Gordon Strachan made a great point.

If you are playing rugby and get frustrated, you can go in with a big tackle and get some of that frustration out of you.

In football, you cannot do that and you air your frustrations vocally – there will be bad language and things said which should not be said.

Wayne Rooney got himself into trouble at the weekend and players at that level have to remember that they are under the microscope all the time.

There are cameras everywhere and the focus for someone like Wayne, who is one of the best players in the world, is particularly intense.

We all do daft things in the heat of the moment and Wayne probably feels the frustration, too; people are at him all the time but I’m sure he knows that he should not have done what he did.

Barnet had a great result on Saturday.

Although it will be tough for them, if they get some momentum going then they have a chance to get out of trouble.

They have some good, experienced players and a manager who will get them up for the challenge.

Everyone has been harping on about Burton and Stockport but we are in there, too, as are Northampton, Morecambe, Macclesfield.

And while Cheltenham and Lincoln have probably done enough there are still seven or eight teams who will be looking over their shoulders and looking to get over that finishing line as quickly as possible.