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Ref Watch Behind Closed Doors Refwatch .........Grimsby (A)

Mick

Life President
Joined
Oct 28, 2003
Messages
10,936
Our only win at Grimsby in matches spanning 100 years (admittedly none in the North/South era) was in 1987 when goals from Big Roy, Martin Ling and Lee Nogan (his only League goal for the club) secured a 3-1 victory. I did see us pick up a point there with a 0-0 in our free-scoring season of 68/69. We’ve played them a lot over the years – there can’t be too many Northern teams we’ve played more. Grimsby have 24 wins to our 18 with 13 draws. We’ve never played them in any sort of Cup competition.

On to the officials, the referee is Ben Toner from Darwen near Blackburn. A sixth-year referee, he is in his mid-thirties and, by profession, a Science teacher at Fleetwood High School. He will be refereeing his sixth Southend match.

He first refereed Southend right at the beginning of his career when he looked completely out of his depth in the 1-1 draw at Gillingham in 2015/16. He cautioned Coker, Bolger, Leonard, McLaughlin, Deegan and Atkinson and just McGlashan for them.

He had over three years to establish himself before his next Southend match which was the 2018/19 shocking performance (us, not him) at Scunthorpe. A hefty 4-1 defeat and yellow for Demetriou and a couple of theirs. Very little was said about the refereeing, which is unusual for a defeat. He must have been okay.

Then came our last away match of that same season when Rochdale did the double over us for the first time in nearly 50 years. It was 1-0 to them in goals and also yellow cards.

Next, just under a year ago he presided over our 3-2 defeat at Bolton with 2 yellows to them and none for us.

Finally, this season’s Cup exit at Boreham Wood with the match drawn 3-3 and the home team going through on penalties. There were 5 cautions with, unusually, all of them going to the home team. Would it have happened with crowds? Probably not. Anyway, little criticism of the referee again in this one.

He made the (minor) headlines last season when he was withdrawn from a scheduled match at Blackpool due to the fact that his name could sound rather like “bent owner”. I would have thought that would have made him an ideal choice.

His 17 matches thus far this season have produced a decidedly average 52 yellows and 2 reds.

Assisting will be, making his Southend debut, Paul Evans the CEO of Carlisle Support Services, a company based in …. Luton and Billy Smallwood from Northwich. Wayne Gunnill from Hull stands by as Fourth Official.
 
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Awful ref; that has to be one of the worst performances I have ever seen. How is this guy in a job ?
 
Awful ref; that has to be one of the worst performances I have ever seen. How is this guy in a job ?

Interested to understand why?

... i thought on the whole he was consistent and let a lot go. He might have booked one or two players for them but to be honest I didnt think they were definitely bookings. We made a lot of them and created a lot of problems by trying to pressure the ref (something we havent been very good at now for a while) .. It was a physical game and I think he did ok
 
It didn't help that McCormack quite clearly pi**ed him off as soon as he walked on the pitch! From that point on we were doomed. Climax being when McCormack was fouled but was able to put a great pass through. Referee blew up and McCormack and others complained- Ref just threw him arms up and said well what do you want! Not good ref management.
 
It didn't help that McCormack quite clearly pi**ed him off as soon as he walked on the pitch! From that point on we were doomed. Climax being when McCormack was fouled but was able to put a great pass through. Referee blew up and McCormack and others complained- Ref just threw him arms up and said well what do you want! Not good ref management.
Just discussing similar things on the post match thread. Macca, jd etc
 
Our players didn’t help with their frustration getting the better of them but have to say, Ben Toner, the gift that keeps on giving! When you fear the worst, never seems to disappoint.
 
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