Ref Watch Refwatch ....... Maidenhead (H)

[Mick]

We have played Maidenhead 6 times with 4 wins, 1 draw and 1 defeat and have actually won the last four in a row, scoring two goals each time. Those eight goals were from seven different scorers with the odd one out, unsurprisingly, being Gus Scott-Morriss with two.

Saturday’s referee is on the Elite Referee Development Pathway and is being fast-tracked at a rate of knots through the system. He is Ruebyn Ricardo from Leicester, who works for the Leicester and Rutland FA in their referee support team. Aged just 25, he was a mid-season promotion to National League North & South a couple of years back and shortly after that became a regular choice for National League games. Now he is mostly in charge of Football League matches.

He has refereed Southend thrice before. Firstly, at Woking for the season before last’s FA Cup exit. He did okay and considerably better than the referee who did the match between the same two teams at Roots Hall a week and a half earlier. A yellow card apiece, ours to Powell.

Later the same season he took charge of the home match against Gateshead. Another good performance from him with Sandat’s early goal clinching all the points. Yellow for Hobson and one yellow and a red for them.

His third match, at Roots Hall, was last season’s home match against Hartlepool. Less impressive this time, unfortunately. A 3-2 defeat with no cards when perhaps there should have been - to both teams.

This season he has taken charge of 9 matches, the most recent of which was Leyton Orient’s home defeat by Exeter 3 days ago. There have been 50 yellow cards and 2 reds in those matches – well above average. Only two of those games were in the National League.

Assistants will be Stephen Brown from Ashford, Kent and Adrian Tranter from Poole. The latter is, I believe, the oldest official at this level. Fourth Official will be Daniel Robinson from Birmingham.

 

[Harry Bullocks]

Standing by for a Saturday card fest
Nice one Mick

 

[stewart]

any of our players sitting on 4 yellows i wonder

 

[Mick]

any of our players sitting on 4 yellows i wonder

Just the only one who knows where the goal is !

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

This season he has taken charge of 9 matches, the most recent of which was Leyton Orient’s home defeat by Exeter 3 days ago. There have been 50 yellow cards and 2 reds in those matches – well above average. Only two of those games were in the National League.

How do NL games compare to L2/FL games for cards? Is it a similar number or is the more physical FL style football generally resulting in more cards than for NL games?

 

[Hooly]

Not sure if Maidenhead have paid him card or cash but I've got a decent limit on my Amex card so might pop & see him at HT.

 

[Voice of Reason]

You should have popped in and given the little oik a slap

 

[GNH]

You should have popped in and given the little oik a slap

Harsh but fair.

Whistle happy, card happy bell end.

Easy to see why the FA like him and are fast tracking him through the system. At least he won't be anywhere near us in the future.

The only fast track I'd like to see him on is the C2C line......

 

[They Call It Madness!!!]

I thought at the time, not a penalty as Crowther put his head down low, but the more I think about it, the defender made contact with Crowther and not the ball. If that was Crowthers foot then it's a late challenge and a penalty easily could be given?

Refs call of not checking for the head injury though, and then not letting the physio on even though Crowther is laying on the floor motionless holding his head was dangerous. Poor officiating for me and I'm sure would be marked down for awareness by an assessor?

 

[Blues ‘n’ twos]

Sh*t for both sides, can’t blame him for the result though!

 

[Shrimper]

I thought at the time, not a penalty as Crowther put his head down low, but the more I think about it, the defender made contact with Crowther and not the ball. If that was Crowthers foot then it's a late challenge and a penalty easily could be given?

Refs call of not checking for the head injury though, and then not letting the physio on even though Crowther is laying on the floor motionless holding his head was dangerous. Poor officiating for me and I'm sure would be marked down for awareness by an assessor?

Twice in the game one of our players went down with a head injury and he was far too slow to stop the game both times, incredibly poor but immediately stopped the game when a Maidenhead player had "cramp"

 

[borientater]

Definitely a pen , crowther got goal side of defender who then tried to clear it by hooking it away but caught crowther in the process. Anywhere else on the pitch that would have been given as a foul and most probably a booking for dangerous play.
Said before the game when I saw him warming up that he looks a right flash sod and he’s gonna make this all about him , think I was right

 

[Hooly]

You should have popped in and given the little oik a slap

To be honest Pete I think he'd have enjoyed that.

As others have said think an example of his undoubted bias, some could call it ineptitude I guess, was over his reaction to 2 injuries.

For one Crowther quite clearly got kicked in the head & the ball was out on the wing before the ref finally blew up & trotted back over. With an obvious head injury Johnny "Usain" Gowens set off down the touchline as he'd not been allowed to come on the pitch as yet. To coin a Howling Wolf song Johnny "is built for comfort, he ain't built for speed" so it took him some time to get around the touchline to the goal. By then the ref still hadn't decided Crowther warranted treatment so he stood there. Finally after what seemed like maybe a minute after the incident the ref beckoned towards the bench for treatment. Fortunately JG was now only 10 yds away so got on quickly. Now fortunately Crowther was looked at & able to continue but my point is that the ref had no idea there was not a serious head injury as from my place in the SU it looked like a solid connection.

Now compare that to when their CF McCoulsky went down with cramp. He summoned their physio on so fast I thought he was going to call for the air ambulance as well.

We have some appalling referees at this level but one with so little respect for player safety should be reported as in the current climate around head injuries I believe this was a dereliction of his duty to the welfare of everyone on the pitch.

 

[OldBlueLady]

Dreadful. There was also a head injury to Gubbins where he did nothing. Allowed so much time wasting by Maidenhead players, especially their GK. One of the worst I've seen - I'd Fast track him to unemployment as a referee!

 

[Clarky176]

I went nuts in the SU yesterday after that Crowther challenge. Not only is it a penalty, but forgetting that for a moment, his first priority as with any ref should be player safety. If there’s a player laying there with blood all over his face, you stop the game. Instantly. No question of where the ball is. Luckily Crowther was ok but with a challenge like that he could well have been in more bother. Leaving it 20-30 seconds before allowing JG on is criminal.

 

[Whispering Bob]

Someone sitting near me commented "I always worry about a referee who seems more concerned with his appearance".

 

[Jacob Sladder]

To be honest Pete I think he'd have enjoyed that.

As others have said think an example of his undoubted bias, some could call it ineptitude I guess, was over his reaction to 2 injuries.

For one Crowther quite clearly got kicked in the head & the ball was out on the wing before the ref finally blew up & trotted back over. With an obvious head injury Johnny "Usain" Gowens set off down the touchline as he'd not been allowed to come on the pitch as yet. To coin a Howling Wolf song Johnny "is built for comfort, he ain't built for speed" so it took him some time to get around the touchline to the goal. By then the ref still hadn't decided Crowther warranted treatment so he stood there. Finally after what seemed like maybe a minute after the incident the ref beckoned towards the bench for treatment. Fortunately JG was now only 10 yds away so got on quickly. Now fortunately Crowther was looked at & able to continue but my point is that the ref had no idea there was not a serious head injury as from my place in the SU it looked like a solid connection.

Now compare that to when their CF McCoulsky went down with cramp. He summoned their physio on so fast I thought he was going to call for the air ambulance as well.

We have some appalling referees at this level but one with so little respect for player safety should be reported as in the current climate around head injuries I believe this was a dereliction of his duty to the welfare of everyone on the pitch.

What ****ed me off was the fact that Harry Taylor got booked for, quite rightly, expressing his concern as to the way in which his teammamte had been kicked in the head and nothing done about it quickly enough - sorry ref but you needed to be told how to do your job. If it had been outside the box, a free kick would have been given, without question.

 

[Mick]

Dreadful. There was also a head injury to Gubbins where he did nothing. Allowed so much time wasting by Maidenhead players, especially their GK. One of the worst I've seen - I'd Fast track him to unemployment as a referee!

Less than a year and a half ago:
click here

Just shows what a year or two on the Elite Referee Pathway can do !.

 

[Hooly]

I've just checked the video & my original estimate was a bit high but it still took the referee 28 seconds to even wave to the bench for Crowther to get treatment & 33 seconds for JG to get to him, but that's only as he'd already run round to be next to the goal. If Gowens had been still by the bench I'd guess it would have been 45 seconds before that head injury was treated.

The referee is therefore either a hugely experienced & psychic head injury consultant who recognised immediately that Crowther wasn't seriously injured or he just got lucky. To be fair to most of us we'd be equally appalled if that had been an away player although I know many wouldn't admit it.

 

[LennySUFC]

Think the only performance worse than that ref was our squads. Constantly giving little fouls, bookings for soft fouls, no penalty for a boot to the chops, not once did he encourage Maidenhead to speed up (Both the GK and Ferguson who walked to every corner kick from the other side of the pitch).

Shout out to the East stand lino for being the first in four years of NL football to have the bottle to give a free kick that the ref didn't give.