Mick
The Ref Aficionado.
We've played Port Vale a lot over the years as when they weren't in the old Division Two, they found themselves in Division Three South. They have a slightly better record than us overall and the last three Roots Hall clashes have resulted in one win, one loss and a draw.
Man in charge at Roots Hall tomorrow is Iain Williamson from Berkshire who is in his 12th season as a League referee. Played non-league for Walton & Hersham until injury forced him into refereeing.
He returns to Roots Hall having been here at the end of last season for the 1-0 win over Luton when he sent off Ben Coker, possibly on the (misguided) advice of a colleague. Red card was subsequently rescinded. There were also a couple of yellows apiece - ours going to Bolger and Deegan.
We have seen quite a lot of him, this being his sixteenth Southend match in charge.
It would have been his seventeenth if he hadn't pulled out of the Brighton League Cup game, presumably due to an injury.
Thirteen of the previous fifteen have been home games, the odd ones out being the dreadful performance at Burton 2010/11 (ours not his - although he wasn't great cautioning 4 of ours and 1 of theirs) and our early season defeat at QPR some while ago.
His previous visit as referee was our 1,500th match at Roots Hall, a comfortable Cup win over Stockport in 2012/13. Yellow for Prosser and 3 of theirs. That was his second visit of that season having presided over our comeback against Exeter with two scoring substitutes (Eastwood and Corr) giving us a victory right at the death. Just a caution for one of theirs.
Before that the most recent home match was deep into 2011/12 against Rotherham when we lost 2-0. Both bookings were theirs.
Other home games include a Drewe dismissal against Oxford, the Freddy Eastwood frivolous appeal match against Southampton in the League Cup, the 1-0 home defeat against Derby and slightly more recently the Cup replay against Telford. His fifteen matches have produced just 27 goals and a multitude of bookings and needless interruptions although happily with all hope of promotion gone he has been far less fussy and unpredictable for a few seasons now
However, for us his most memorable appearance at Roots Hall was when, as 4th official, he held up the numbers board at our historic victory over Manchester United.
He repeated the same trick more recently as 4th Official for our Wembley-clinching semi-final against Orient
This season he has refereed 7 games with 24 yellow cards and 2 reds.
The two assistants will be Adam Crysell from Braintree and Paul Howard from Bermondsey. The latter refereed our FA Youth Cup game against Leverstock Green* last season. Fourth Official is Nick Cooper from Ipswich.
* this year we are away to Barton Rovers or AFC Dunstable in the same round.
Man in charge at Roots Hall tomorrow is Iain Williamson from Berkshire who is in his 12th season as a League referee. Played non-league for Walton & Hersham until injury forced him into refereeing.
He returns to Roots Hall having been here at the end of last season for the 1-0 win over Luton when he sent off Ben Coker, possibly on the (misguided) advice of a colleague. Red card was subsequently rescinded. There were also a couple of yellows apiece - ours going to Bolger and Deegan.
We have seen quite a lot of him, this being his sixteenth Southend match in charge.
It would have been his seventeenth if he hadn't pulled out of the Brighton League Cup game, presumably due to an injury.
Thirteen of the previous fifteen have been home games, the odd ones out being the dreadful performance at Burton 2010/11 (ours not his - although he wasn't great cautioning 4 of ours and 1 of theirs) and our early season defeat at QPR some while ago.
His previous visit as referee was our 1,500th match at Roots Hall, a comfortable Cup win over Stockport in 2012/13. Yellow for Prosser and 3 of theirs. That was his second visit of that season having presided over our comeback against Exeter with two scoring substitutes (Eastwood and Corr) giving us a victory right at the death. Just a caution for one of theirs.
Before that the most recent home match was deep into 2011/12 against Rotherham when we lost 2-0. Both bookings were theirs.
Other home games include a Drewe dismissal against Oxford, the Freddy Eastwood frivolous appeal match against Southampton in the League Cup, the 1-0 home defeat against Derby and slightly more recently the Cup replay against Telford. His fifteen matches have produced just 27 goals and a multitude of bookings and needless interruptions although happily with all hope of promotion gone he has been far less fussy and unpredictable for a few seasons now
However, for us his most memorable appearance at Roots Hall was when, as 4th official, he held up the numbers board at our historic victory over Manchester United.
He repeated the same trick more recently as 4th Official for our Wembley-clinching semi-final against Orient
This season he has refereed 7 games with 24 yellow cards and 2 reds.
The two assistants will be Adam Crysell from Braintree and Paul Howard from Bermondsey. The latter refereed our FA Youth Cup game against Leverstock Green* last season. Fourth Official is Nick Cooper from Ipswich.
* this year we are away to Barton Rovers or AFC Dunstable in the same round.
