Ref Watch ........ Burton H

[Mick]

Tomorrow night's referee, Charles Breakspear from Walton-on-Thames, has refereed two Southend matches before and in both of them 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. So, third time luck and a win ???

He is one of the less experienced officials with this being his second season.

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

His yellow card count is average and red a shade on the high side with 45 yellows and 6 reds from 15 games. He has not been given any Championship matches for the best part of a year.

He refereed the Brewers as recently as last month - their 1-1 home draw with Plymouth and last Saturday he presided over Col U's narrow 4-1 home defeat in front of less than 3,000.

Assisting are Ryan T Atkin from London and Adrian Sannerude from Lowestoft with fully fledged League Referee, Michael Bull from Chelmsford acting as 4th Official.

 

[Lord Football]

Yay, Bully. I'll tap him for a pint.

 

[Mick]

Yay, Bully. I'll tap him for a pint.

He's doing well, with good appointments including the recent Bournemouth v Ipswich top of the table clash.

Also a second season ref, but seems to be more highly rated than the man in the middle!

 

[Harry Bullocks]

Top job Mick.....quality assured :clap:

 

[Fiftyone]

Mick.......... what was your take on the referee's performance?.

 

[Mick]

Mick.......... what was your take on the referee's performance?.

On the plus side, he didn't make any match defining errors, but generally I wasn't overly impressed and can see why his appointments this season have been nothing to write home about.

Obviously an early mistake when the keeper tipped the ball round the post for a goal-kick and he missed a couple of potential advantages. An awful lot of free-kicks for which the players must take most of the blame but I thought there was a distinct randomness about his decision making.

Ok-ish, I suppose .... a bit like the game.

For the record, Assistant Ryan T Atkin was replaced by Darren Blunden, in front of the West Stand.

 

[Fiftyone]

Thanks Mick................. what did you think about his decisions on the several cases of "diving" that took place?.

 

[Mick]

Thanks Mick................. what did you think about his decisions on the several cases of "diving" that took place?.

There were a couple which I wouldn't have been surprised to see result in cards and we were not totally blameless on that front.

However carding for simulation is not an easy one for referees; you are effectively calling a player a cheat and so the official is going to want to be at least 200% certain. The only effective way to rid the game of cheating is for retrospective action to be taken against the cheats and sufficient sanctions given to provide a deterrent.

It is far too difficult to expect referees to get it right with any consistency (especially in the higher divisions where they are not only better players but better actors too). Asking referees to clamp down on diving would just result in more players being cautioned, maybe even sent off, when they should have had a penalty. It would introduce even more perverse decisions and, as is the way of things, the "smaller" clubs would be on the wrong end of most of them.

It is surprising that the sport's governing bodies have shown little appetite to get rid of this insidious practice that is undermining the game from the highest levels downwards.

 

[Fiftyone]

I appreciate your comments.:thumbsup:

 

[borientater]

Surely when a player such as Burton's number 9 , who goes down screaming like a big baby , then gets up and carries on running and is clearly not hurt or injured then the ref should stop the game and book him for attempting to con him .

 

[Lord Football]

Surely when a player such as Burton's number 9 , who goes down screaming like a big baby , then gets up and carries on running and is clearly not hurt or injured then the ref should stop the game and book him for attempting to con him .

Seen Ryan Leonard do that a few times this season. Sadly its creeping into the game. A couple of early cards puts a stop to it.