Aggrieved at clownsome referee

We lost 2-1 at soccer last night - I think perhaps the lowest score since I've been playing indoor. We played OK generally but our shooting was poor and their goalie was talented. I like to play pretty hard, and I had a series of clashes with one particular guy on the other side.

We were one goal down with a minute to go, and my adversary had the ball. He was a bit slow getting rid of it, and I took it off him. He didn't like the way I did it, mouthed off and lashed out at me, giving away a free kick. With 5 seconds on the clock I took the kick and sprayed it. As the hooter I sounded I went to shake hands but he refused.

The referee we always have lately is a clown, and usually pretty inconsistent. The first time we had him, I enquired politely what a free kick was for. He replied "It's a bit hard to explain..." Clown. He can't work the remote-control scoreboard, so we spend the whole game wondering what the score really is.

He can apparently read minds. He has given free kicks on occasions when I have won the ball with a bit of incidental contact because "you weren't really going for the ball". He is often late on the court, arriving up to 2 minutes after the clock has started running. Last night he was late for the start and again for the 2nd half, which is just ridiculous. The timing is all automatic and there is no way to reset the clock, so that time (which we pay for) is just lost.

I was feeling generally aggrieved at the clown, the stroppy opponent who wouldn't shake, and of course losing. There's nothing you can say about bad refereeing. His decision is final, and if you've lost the match it just sounds like sour grapes anyway. But I am sick of waiting for him to come on the court, so I vented my frustration to the centre manager. I pointed out that if a player is late on court the team is penalised 2 goals. He didn't really get my point of view - I'm sure it was just another whinge to him.

I know this is not the World Cup. My team are all close to, or over 40 and at times we probably look like a sweaty unfit pack of sad dads. But - we pay to play. We are customers. There's got to be a bit of respect for the players from the referees.