Ref Watch ..... Oxford H

[Mick]

We have a slight edge over Oxford in League games with 17 wins to their 16 and we haven't lost to them at home since Drewe Broughton was sent off and Mark Rawle scored their winner in 2003.

Tomorrow's referee is the rapidly balding Graham Horwood from Luton, in his 8th year as a League referee and refereeing his 11th Southend game.

His seven and a bit years of League service are either side of a two year gap when he was demoted for performance reasons. Even now some years after his return, for me, he falls in to the "lucky to still be there" category.

His last visit to Southend was for last season's victory over Blackpool where despite just one yellow card (to the visitors) he was unconvincing.

The previous season there were three matches. Firstly, his first visit to Roots Hall to preside over the start and end of our Cup run. That shocking Chester match saw a hefty number of yellows, 4 a piece. Ours went to Binnom-Williams, Sokolik, White and Timlin. Towards the end of that season he refereed our 1-0 home win over Tranmere, on their way out of the League. Yellow for Bolger and 3 of theirs. In between those matches he was in charge of our game at Wycombe, where we were very much second best. The sending off of Binnom-Williams was probably correct. Yellows went to O'Toole and Deegan and a couple of theirs.

His only other Southend match since his re-instatement was the pre-Christmas, Friday night game 2013/14 against Rochdale which finished 1-1. It was 1-1 on yellow cards too - Leonard got ours and ex-blue Lund, theirs. He did okay.

During his period of de-selection he appeared in Southend matches on a couple of occasions as an Assistant. Before that, his previous four visits to Roots Hall as a referee weren't too bad. The most recent was the final home game of 2008/9 against Cheltenham. The other three were Hereford in the same season and Rochdale in the cup and Bournemouth in the League the year before that. So, Chester apart, we have a very decent home record with this official. The only match of these with a significant number of cards was the Rochdale Cup game where they had 4 yellows to our one. Le Fondre scored for them; Bailey and Harrold for us.

Since those he refereed the 1-0 defeat at Aldershot 2010/11 when we shaded the yellows 3-2.

A referee who will never rise above the level of those making up the numbers, he started last season late and finished it early. This season he's done 6 matches and produced a high 24 yellows and 2 reds, the most recent of which was a very harsh second yellow to an Accrington player on Saturday.

Don't expect too much and you might not be disappointed - our home record with him in League games is good.

Assistants will be Gavin Muge from Bedford and Rob Smith from Letchworth. Lee Venamore from Maidstone will be doing the 4th official stuff.

 

[Harry Bullocks]

This could be a(nother) eventful match :unsure:

 

[AndyT]

Odd old ref, for me.

Gave a lot of free-kicks for shoves and stuff and certainly liked a yellow card. Think he just carried it around with him, rather than had it in his pocket.

Overall, I'd say he did OK, so a 7 from the jury, here.

 

[C V Shrimper]

Odd old ref, for me.

Gave a lot of free-kicks for shoves and stuff and certainly liked a yellow card. Think he just carried it around with him, rather than had it in his pocket.

Overall, I'd say he did OK, so a 7 from the jury, here.

Trouble is he missed the most important shove!

 

[AndyT]

Yep, we did say that at the time, as he'd given plenty in the middle of the pitch. It wasn't a massively blatant shove, but enough to put Coker off-balance.

That said, Coker should have been stronger at the back post, regardless of the shove.

 

[Mick]

A poor ref we do well with is better than a good ref we do badly with !

 

[borientater]

Thought the assault on McLaughlin in front of west stand in first half was worthy of a red card , excessive force and no way in control .
Why did he book Wordsworth ?

 

[BILLERICAY BLUE]

Wordsworth was quite rightly booked for diving to try and win a free kick. Agree with you about the foul on Macca though, that was a nasty one. Mind you the officials made up for it by not sending off Anton for the skirmish in the aftermath of that incident.

 

[OldBlueLady]

Wordsworth was quite rightly booked for diving to try and win a free kick. Agree with you about the foul on Macca though, that was a nasty one. Mind you the officials made up for it by not sending off Anton for the skirmish in the aftermath of that incident.

Was it a dive? Bloody strange to end up on your knees if it's a dive isn't it? Certainly didn't look like a dive from the West but appreciate we were a fair distance away.

 

[londonblue]

Was it a dive? Bloody strange to end up on your knees if it's a dive isn't it? Certainly didn't look like a dive from the West but appreciate we were a fair distance away.

I was in the West. I thought it was a dive, as did the guy sitting next to me.

 

[dansmiffy93]

I was in W pretty much in line with it, definite dive.

 

[OldBlueLady]

Ok, fair enough, just seemed odd him going down on his knees - a dive is normally a bit more theatrical!

 

[davewebbsbrain]

Was it a dive? Bloody strange to end up on your knees if it's a dive isn't it? Certainly didn't look like a dive from the West but appreciate we were a fair distance away.

The lady in front of me was also listening on the radio said that Clarke thought it was a very harsh yellow card and didn't look like a dive

 

[BILLERICAY BLUE]

To be fair, I think he tried to stop himself, which is why he ended up on his knees. But the intention was definitely there.

 

[Suffolk Blue]

Wordy says he never claimed the free kick and indicated this to the ref. Perhaps the ref should wait for the player to ask for the free kick before dishing out a card and accusing him of cheating.

 

[borientater]

So why no booking for the Oxford player in the first half trying to con the ref into giving a penalty against Inness? Ref simply waved play on and the player was appealing like mad .

 

[Jay_SUFC]

So why no booking for the Oxford player in the first half trying to con the ref into giving a penalty against Inness? Ref simply waved play on and the player was appealing like mad .

I was going to mention the same thing and his dive was a lot worse - inconsistency again and people wonder why fans and managers get frustrated with refs!!

 

[leroyjean]

So why no booking for the Oxford player in the first half trying to con the ref into giving a penalty against Inness? Ref simply waved play on and the player was appealing like mad .

I think that was simply a case of the Oxford player being well and truly outmuscled, sort-of what used to be called a shoulder charge, legitimate when the ball is playable by either party. The effect was to knock the player off-balance, so he might well want to claim it was unfair. It doesn't make his falling a dive, and the ref remains free to judge whether Innis's challenge was fair. Of course, we'd have a radically different game if the powers-that-be made appealing for ANYTHING an offence - many other sports seem to manage without systemic challenges, or a strict limit is put on the number allowed.