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Ref Watch ....... AFC Wimbledon (H)

Mick

Life President
Joined
Oct 28, 2003
Messages
10,936
On the first day of 2019 we were 15 places and 13 points above AFC Wimbledon. Who would have thought just 10 weeks later this would become a massive “six-pointer” against a team 25% of which is made up of departed Shrimpers, all three of whom would walk straight into our side at present?

The last time we hosted a London club at Roots Hall it all ended badly with a late defeat and two home players (and an away one) sent off in stoppage time. Well, Saturday sees the return of that same referee to Roots Hall.

It’s Brett Huxtable from Torrington near Barnstable in Devon. In his early 30s, he is a self-employed builder and in his third season as a League referee.

His most recent Southend match was at Barnsley for our 1-0 defeat where he was probably adequate. That is his only cardless League match in his 3 years on the National List.

His previous Southend match is memorable for all the wrong reasons. It was, of course, that home match against Charlton which, from his perspective, was going okay until he failed to show Prately an obvious red card. The second half went from bad to worse and culminated in those three red cards at the end. There were 7 yellows in addition to those reds, White and Demetriou collecting our two.

His only other Southend match was the Rotherham home match last season when he had a decent game. Despite that less than athletic appearance, he got around the pitch okay. We won 2-0 and the only card was a yellow for them.

His card count is on the high side with 117 yellows and 6 reds from 33 matches (although half of his reds were in that one game against Charlton).

He will be assisted by Paul Graham from Manchester (!) and on the Board of the Manchester FA and Andrew Williams from Pinner who is running the line at Roots Hall for the fifth time this season, the first one being that Charlton match mentioned earlier! Michael Webb from Woking stands by as Fourth Official.
 
Mick, was your exclamation mark after "Manchester" (home of one of the assistant linesmen), because of the distance to travel?

If so, it is 23 miles nearer than where the referee has to come from!!!!
 
Mick, was your exclamation mark after "Manchester" (home of one of the assistant linesmen), because of the distance to travel?

If so, it is 23 miles nearer than where the referee has to come from!!!!

They haven't got round to giving "linesmen" assistants yet - although some do look as though they could do with one ! But I know what you mean.

Yes, the referee has a longer journey but referees travelling a distance is commonplace (specially if they live in an area with few clubs). There is a much bigger pool of Assistant Referees and they would normally make shorter journeys. I expect he has a reason for being down south.
 
Average ref, took account of conditions (not a single hand ball given!) and was fair to both sides, chatted well too.
Maybe better than average on fuller reflection?
 
Thought the ref was excellent.

As they say, the best refs are generally un-noticed and it was only his bright pink shirt and slightly tubby stature that made you aware he was on the field at all.
 
Off topic, a client of mine is a Bradford City season ticket holder and said last week they had a pretty poor ref doing their home game against Peterborough. Gave a dreadful penalty.

So I looked him up and it was our very own Matt D! :Blush:
 
Carrying a bit of timber, wasn't he?
He was, and he didn’t mind there keeper wasting time in taking goal kicks even when the score was 0-0, they’d of been happy coming to the hall and taking a point, even Wordsworth was milking the time in taking corners, and they were even very poor corners for him.
 
Off topic, a client of mine is a Bradford City season ticket holder and said last week they had a pretty poor ref doing their home game against Peterborough. Gave a dreadful penalty.

So I looked him up and it was our very own Matt D! :Blush:
I play golf with Matt D's father, who went to the game last Saturday. Apparantly Matt knew almost straightaway that he had made an error for the pen, and was duly marked down by the assessor. By all accounts however, he is highly thought of as an up and coming league ref.
 
That's good to hear.

He's definitely coming through and getting a full list of league matches this season. His brother - James - used to play cricket for us and I've spoken to his mum a couple of times at Southend Hospital and she said he was enjoying being involved with football and making his way up through the levels.

In fairness, the fella I know at Bradford said he could see he had potential as a ref but just had a bad day.
 
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