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Mick

Life President
Joined
Oct 28, 2003
Messages
10,935
The last visit of Bolton to Roots Hall was that, oh so memorable, 5-2 win 20 years ago.

Tomorrow's referee is Charles Breakspear from Walton-on-Thames.

He has refereed six Southend matches before and in the first two he sent off an opposing player. Sadly we only got a defeat and a draw (and subsequent penalty shoot-out defeat) to show for our numerical advantage. The last four we did somewhat better picking up two wins and a two draws and a good number of bookings !

He is in his fourth season as a League referee and, for me, he is another one who falls into the "lucky to still be there" category. He has a high card count with 104 yellows and 5 reds from 26 games and hasn't had a cardless match for nigh on three years.

Those previous matches were, firstly, our 3-1 home defeat to Morecambe in 2013/14. Their sub got a red just 7 minutes after coming on and there was a yellow apiece (Timlin for us) and in 2014/15 he presided over the JPT match at Wimbledon where unusually all four cards (3 yellows and a red) went to the home team.

His next Southend match was his unconvincing performance in 2014/15's 0-0 home draw with Burton - a yellow for Prosser and three of theirs. This match came at the beginning of that dire run of 6 hours football without a goal from either team at Roots Hall.

This was followed by last season's home match against Barnsley which we won 2-1. We also won the bookings 4-2 (Bentley, White, Wordsworth and Piggott) and he gave them a penalty.

Then comes his appearance, as a late and wholly inadequate replacement for the excellent Dean Whitestone, at home to Crewe last season. This match we drew 1-1 and we smashed them on bookings 5-1 (Coker, Bolger, Wordsworth, Barnett and Worrall). He gave us not one but two penalties. Barnett missed his but Jack Payne put his away for a stoppage time equalizer.

Finally, his most recent Southend match was the comfortable 3-0 win at MK Dons earlier this season when his performance did not attract any adverse criticism (other than his again rather haphazard measuring of defensive wall distances!). A caution for Coker and three of theirs.

So that's 9 cautions against us in his last two matches at Roots Hall with Wordsworth booked in both.

Assisting are Michael Webb from Woking and Ian Rathbone from the whimsically named Semilong in Northamptonshire. Fourth Official is Sam Purkiss from Highbury who a few years back sent off 5 home players in a Ryman League match that was subsequently abandoned. No blame was attributed to him.
 
Good preview as usual Mick.

I remember the Bolton game 20 years ago... Essex were playing Lancashire in the Nat West Trophy cricket cup final and whilst we were whipping Notlob (Monty Python fans please note), Essex were reducing Lancashire to some ridiculous sub 200 total at a target run rate of only just over 3 runs per over.

We went most of the season "knowing we were a good side because we thrashed Bolton" and ended up relegated, finishing bottom by a distance whilst they won the league by a bigger distance, scoring 100 goals and getting 98 points, exactly 59 more than we did.

Essex also capitulated to a Lancashire bowling attack with G Chapple taking 6-18 in 6.2 overs to bowl us all out for 57. It could have been worse... we were 34-8.

The early cries of "Essex, Essex" from the North Bank were pretty darn quiet at 4:45...
 
Good preview as usual Mick.

I remember the Bolton game 20 years ago... Essex were playing Lancashire in the Nat West Trophy cricket cup final and whilst we were whipping Notlob (Monty Python fans please note), Essex were reducing Lancashire to some ridiculous sub 200 total at a target run rate of only just over 3 runs per over.

We went most of the season "knowing we were a good side because we thrashed Bolton" and ended up relegated, finishing bottom by a distance whilst they won the league by a bigger distance, scoring 100 goals and getting 98 points, exactly 59 more than we did.

Essex also capitulated to a Lancashire bowling attack with G Chapple taking 6-18 in 6.2 overs to bowl us all out for 57. It could have been worse... we were 34-8.

The early cries of "Essex, Essex" from the North Bank were pretty darn quiet at 4:45...

I was at the cricket that day. Thought we had them beat and there was plenty of banter with the Lancashire fans around us. Especially when Ronnie Irani came down to field in front of us at Third Man. Being an ex-Lancastrian, of course, he copped loads of stick, but was giving it back as well, showing the Lancashire fans how many fingers for the wickets, as they fell! :smile:

They had the last laugh, though, and boy did they let us know!

The only bit of good news, as we filed out of the ground, was that we'd beaten Bolton 5-2! :thumbsup:
 
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