CHRISTOPHER SMITH Relegation brings out the worst in the fans, and where it all hangs on a single contested goal, tempers fray. Robert Farquhar makes a drama out of a tragedy, with ripe language from the terraces and psychology from the tabloids.

CHRISTOPHER SMITH

Relegation brings out the worst in the fans, and where it all hangs on a single contested goal, tempers fray. Robert Farquhar makes a drama out of a tragedy, with ripe language from the terraces and psychology from the tabloids.

Referees will hope that the violence of the plot is no more than the figment of a fertile imagination.

Time is of the essence. The final whistle has been blown, and every endeavour to change the decision is futile. You can watch the key moment on video, but calling it an action replay is a sour joke when you can never change the result.

The two 'supporters' we see are more in need of support than capable of giving it. They turn to football to fill the voids in their heads, and can't even support one another for more than a couple of moments. The referee stands a head taller than they do, and ends up with an ironically superior reward. Warren Donnelly, Ron Meadows and Liam Tobin give riveting and hysterically funny performances in this deft, cleverly lit production by Richard Jordan.

t God's Official was being performed at Norwich Playhouse.