SOUTHAMPTON referees are unlikely to follow a trend started in Ireland two years ago.

Match officials in the Leinster Senior League went on strike in 2002 following a rise in verbal and physical assaults on them.

And referees in Bedfordshire were considering strike action earlier this year after one of their colleagues had his jaw broken by a punch from a player.

But John Challis, secretary of the Southampton & District Referees Association, said: "Strike action is something we might talk about one day, and we might threaten it - but I don't think we'd ever go through with it."

Challis added: "If it was up to me anybody found guilty of an assault on a match official would be banned for life."