Mick
The Ref Aficionado.
Well here is what we all hope will be the preantepenultimate refwatch of the season. We have played Gateshead five times with one win, one draw and three defeats and we have yet to win at the Gateshead International Stadium.
They’ve appointed a pretty experienced team for this rather crucial match and the man in charge, in his first Southend match is Lancashire based Martin Woods. He started refereeing at the age of 14 in the Bolton Boys Federation and progressed through the system to be promoted to the Football League at the start of the 2022/23 season and has only done two National League matches in the last three years, all his other games being at Football League level and predominantly League One of late. One of those two National League matches was at Gateshead back in August this season for their 3-1 win over Yeovil.
As stated, there is no previous history to look back on as he left non-league soon after we joined it. His 31 games this season have produced 102 yellow cards and 5 reds. Nothing particularly untoward there but he did make a bit of history a couple of months ago when he sent off Shrewsbury’s objectionable John Marquis after 13 seconds, equalling the record for fastest dismissal in English professional football. His last match was Blackpool v Birmingham a couple of days ago.
Assisting will be Thomas Harty of Wolverhampton and Jacob Graham from Manchester. The former did a line in the Football League match at home to Bury in 2017, the latter assisted at Chesterfield last season.
Fourth Official is 38 year old Ross Joyce from Elston, just outside Middlesbrough, who is in his 10th season as a Football League referee and refereed Southend seven times over our Football League years, most recently a goalless draw at Cambridge in 2020/21. Additionally, he refereed our 3-0 defeat at York this season. Not always been the best of referees.
They’ve appointed a pretty experienced team for this rather crucial match and the man in charge, in his first Southend match is Lancashire based Martin Woods. He started refereeing at the age of 14 in the Bolton Boys Federation and progressed through the system to be promoted to the Football League at the start of the 2022/23 season and has only done two National League matches in the last three years, all his other games being at Football League level and predominantly League One of late. One of those two National League matches was at Gateshead back in August this season for their 3-1 win over Yeovil.
As stated, there is no previous history to look back on as he left non-league soon after we joined it. His 31 games this season have produced 102 yellow cards and 5 reds. Nothing particularly untoward there but he did make a bit of history a couple of months ago when he sent off Shrewsbury’s objectionable John Marquis after 13 seconds, equalling the record for fastest dismissal in English professional football. His last match was Blackpool v Birmingham a couple of days ago.
Assisting will be Thomas Harty of Wolverhampton and Jacob Graham from Manchester. The former did a line in the Football League match at home to Bury in 2017, the latter assisted at Chesterfield last season.
Fourth Official is 38 year old Ross Joyce from Elston, just outside Middlesbrough, who is in his 10th season as a Football League referee and refereed Southend seven times over our Football League years, most recently a goalless draw at Cambridge in 2020/21. Additionally, he refereed our 3-0 defeat at York this season. Not always been the best of referees.
