Mick
The Ref Aficionado.
The four recent home matches against Accrington have been tight affairs with a 1-0 win apiece and two draws. This is in stark contrast to our other two home matches against them, in the late 50s, just after the abolition of Divs 3 North and South, which we won by an aggregate of 10-3.
Saturday's match official is the experienced and normally very decent Mick Russell from St Albans.
A steady official in his 11th season (although he has had a few lengthy spells out with injuries), this will be his 14th Southend match and his 8th at home.
His first home Southend match was also Freddie Eastwood's first match and we know what happened there! His next home game was the early season victory over Stoke in 2006/7. Some more recent home matches were the 3-3 derby match with Colchester when he cautioned 5 of theirs and none of ours and the somewhat lively 3-2 victory over a fairly unpleasant Hartlepool side involving two penalties and the dismissal of their keeper.
He most recent Southend home match was on our march to Wembley with our home win over a less than full strength Brentford team (cautioned Timlin and a couple of theirs). Before that four seasons ago at home to Morecambe, where some might say he wasn't great and failed to dismiss a Morecambe player for an off the ball incident involving Mohsni and, later in the same season, when he (and we) coasted through a cardless game against Macclesfield (Mohsni got a couple).
His first two away matches were both on the south coast; the 1-1 draw at Bournemouth when Sodje was injured and then the 3-2 defeat at Brighton in 2007/8.
Then comes the match when he apparently blotted his copybook in a game I did not see at Swindon in 2009/10, where, by all accounts, he had a bit of a nightmare. However he was subsequently back to his best in a game I did see at Norwich later that season when it was certainly not his fault we failed to hold on to one point when for much of the game we looked like taking all three.
Next away game was the 2011/12 win at Burton where he had another good match, although he did caution Grant and Phillips. Then his most recent away match was Straker's finest hour - the Cup win at Chesterfield last season with yellows to Coker, Hurst and one of theirs.
A referee who usually officiates with a smile on his face, he looks to allow play to continue where possible and always has a below average card count. He has done 21 matches this season which have produced 54 yellows and 3 reds (9 of those yellows came in the Leeds/Derby match).
His assistants are the incredibly short Matthew Buonassisi (né McLaughlin) from Bedford who can have a tendency to be a bit "busier" with the flag than always necessary and Mark Mellor from Hemel Hempstead. Neil Hair from Peterborough is on 4th Official duty.
Saturday's match official is the experienced and normally very decent Mick Russell from St Albans.
A steady official in his 11th season (although he has had a few lengthy spells out with injuries), this will be his 14th Southend match and his 8th at home.
His first home Southend match was also Freddie Eastwood's first match and we know what happened there! His next home game was the early season victory over Stoke in 2006/7. Some more recent home matches were the 3-3 derby match with Colchester when he cautioned 5 of theirs and none of ours and the somewhat lively 3-2 victory over a fairly unpleasant Hartlepool side involving two penalties and the dismissal of their keeper.
He most recent Southend home match was on our march to Wembley with our home win over a less than full strength Brentford team (cautioned Timlin and a couple of theirs). Before that four seasons ago at home to Morecambe, where some might say he wasn't great and failed to dismiss a Morecambe player for an off the ball incident involving Mohsni and, later in the same season, when he (and we) coasted through a cardless game against Macclesfield (Mohsni got a couple).
His first two away matches were both on the south coast; the 1-1 draw at Bournemouth when Sodje was injured and then the 3-2 defeat at Brighton in 2007/8.
Then comes the match when he apparently blotted his copybook in a game I did not see at Swindon in 2009/10, where, by all accounts, he had a bit of a nightmare. However he was subsequently back to his best in a game I did see at Norwich later that season when it was certainly not his fault we failed to hold on to one point when for much of the game we looked like taking all three.
Next away game was the 2011/12 win at Burton where he had another good match, although he did caution Grant and Phillips. Then his most recent away match was Straker's finest hour - the Cup win at Chesterfield last season with yellows to Coker, Hurst and one of theirs.
A referee who usually officiates with a smile on his face, he looks to allow play to continue where possible and always has a below average card count. He has done 21 matches this season which have produced 54 yellows and 3 reds (9 of those yellows came in the Leeds/Derby match).
His assistants are the incredibly short Matthew Buonassisi (né McLaughlin) from Bedford who can have a tendency to be a bit "busier" with the flag than always necessary and Mark Mellor from Hemel Hempstead. Neil Hair from Peterborough is on 4th Official duty.
