REFEREEING is a tough job, ask Lancaster's David Allison - he retires this week after 30 years as the man the fans love to hate. At 48-years-old he's reached the age where all referees have to retire, by rule of the PFA, and on Saturday he travels north for his last match, Carlisle at home to Exeter City. As a child, he never dreamed of refereeing: "People go around with Man Utd shirts on, not referee's tops," he says frankly but as a sports teacher he found himself increasingly as the official for schoolboy matches. The Football League was desperately short of referees and so David volunteered. He started near the bottom in the North Lancashire League and slowly but surely worked his way up - with a number of clubs recommending him. In 1977 he made it to the Football League and has since judged many top-flight matches and put Lancaster on the map. Like all referees, David took a lot of stick from players, fans and the media but he knew that was a part and parcel of being a referee.

"I'm only human, everyone makes mistakes and people have the right to criticise," he says. His most memorable match was last year when Leicester City met Crystal Palace at Wembley in the First Division play-off final.

"The atmosphere was incredible and the drama was high when Steve Claridge scored the winning goal just two seconds from time."

He thinks that football has evolved for the better since he started refereeing.

"The introduction of the offside and the backpass rules has made football better and more foreign players has brought even more life to the game. The rule about the stretchers has got to be thought out more but football will stay popular for many years as long as we don't take away the 'grass roots' of the game."

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