Ref Watch ..... Gillingham A

[Mick]

Well our last six League matches at Gillingham have finished WDLDWL, so things couldn't have been much more even.

After "something old" at Chesterfield (Graham Salisbury, who I thought had a pretty decent match unlike some), we have "something new" at Priestfield.

The referee is in his first season as a League referee and this is easily his biggest ever match in terms of League position of participating teams! He is Ben Toner from Darwen near Blackburn. He is a teacher at Fleetwood High School (much to the chagrin of Port Vale, when as an Assistant Referee, he flagged furiously for Fleetwood's winning penalty against them !).

Strangely he was Fourth Official on Tuesday at Chesterfield, an unnecessary risk by the "appointers" had anything kicked off in that match - which it didn't appear to.

He has refereed 9 matches this season, producing 32 yellow cards and just the one red.

He has never refereed Southend or Gillingham before and I've never seen him in action as a referee. This may seem a long way to come for a League One match but he's been further as he was one of the team of officials to travel to Dallas for the Dallas Cup last year.

Assistants are Neil Davies, a fully qualified Actuary and Pensions Specialist in the City (so he's not doing refereeing for the money!) from London and the more elderly Mark Mellor from Hemel Hempstead, who I saw have a wretched match in the FA Cup at Tilbury earlier this season. Fourth Official is the tall, balding John O'Brien from London who looks older but isn't.

 

[Uncle Leo]

Mick, do you know if any of them have an opinion on the Ben Clarkson tweet?

 

[Mick]

Mick, do you know if any of them have an opinion on the Ben Clarkson tweet?

I can't imagine for one second that any of them would be even slightly interested or concerned about a possibly ill-judged tweet made with no malice. Hopefully they have bigger issues to fill their time.

 

[Uncle Leo]

I can't imagine for one second that any of them would be even slightly interested or concerned about a possibly ill-judged tweet made with no malice. Hopefully they have bigger issues to fill their time.

I find that difficult to believe. It's one of the great issues of our time.

 

[Harry Bullocks]

:clap: :clap: :clap: cheers Mick

 

[Liam AAS]

Interesting to see what attendees thought of Mr Toner.

 

[Maidstone Shrimper]

Interesting to see what attendees thought of Mr Toner.

Mick said "The referee is in his first season as a League referee and this is easily his biggest ever match in terms of League position of participating teams!" Boy did it show. Very naive and easily swayed by the crowd. From a distance Deegan it looked as though was booked for a good tackle and that set the standard.

 

[manor15]

Notice we picked up 6 yellows today, isn't that the number which incurs a fine from the FA?

 

[Barry.C]

Personally I thought the ref was very poor. Young bloke, lost the plot!! booked 5 of our players . Coker for catching the ball after it had gone out of play, the ball rebounded off the sideboards over Cokers head who facing his goal caught it, and was immediately flattened from behind by a Gillingham Player. He was not wasting time, but both he and Gills player booked. Bolger went to have a word with the Gillingham lad who had handled the ball in the box and went to ground Bolger was booked for seemingly wagging his finger.
It was a wet pitch and players were sliding in at times unwisely. Both Mc Laughlin and Deegan were booked for what looked like 50- 50 balls from afar. Pigott was being hacked throughout the game, pulled down, his shirt ripped off his back , but the ref gave 2 free kicks against him. We were protesting significantly for what looked like a shove in the box and a penalty, not given. Similarly mid way in the second half gills fans went mad for a penalty themselves, It seemed like it was at a distance, he gave a goal kick.If not a penalty he could have given a yellow for the dive? / Only one Yellow for Gills? The young ref looked out of his depth at this level and panicked at times !

 

[Voice of Reason]

His worst decision was a free kick against Weston for being pushed over,which led to their goal Muppet

 

[shrimpled]

Weston was fouled in the corner, fell on the ball and the referee gave the decision against him, assumedly for a handball, but it was such a clear foul on Weston. 20 seconds later the ball was in our net. He lost control of the game early doors and never regained it. When both managers criticise the referee the way they have done it shows how bad a game he had.

 

[admam89]

without doubt the worst referee performance ive ever witnessed. He needs sacking asap

 

[Chalky]

Am I right in thinking that the club can appeal to the FA if any of the 6 yellows were poor decisions??

 

[Liam AAS]

Am I right in thinking that the club can appeal to the FA if any of the 6 yellows were poor decisions??

I'm not sure, but I think this is something to do with the match report. If it's in there I don't think the can do anything about it.

I think.

 

[SHRIMPERPETER]

Fastrack him to the premier league quick!!

 

[Maidstone Shrimper]

Am I right in thinking that the club can appeal to the FA if any of the 6 yellows were poor decisions??

Our referees will know but since you can't appeal against a yellow card I'd guess that our only hope is the match assessor but even he may not have the authority to save us. Personally I think Mr Toner should be fined.

 

[Bazza the dog]

By far the worse Ref in a long time.

 

[Blues 'n twos]

Out of his depth! That is all I will say.

 

[Magnum PI]

Without any shadow of a doubt the worst display of refereeing I have ever seen and I have been going to football for almost thirty years. I wouldn't know where to start in terms of starting to list the incidents. He seemed extremely keen to award them anything whereas the opposite was true of us. Some of the bookings were incredulous. I still can't believe how utterly incompetent he was ....

 

[OldBlueLady]

Lol, just as well I wasn't there by the sound of things!