Ref Watch .... Rochdale H

[Mick]

We have played Rochdale many times since the disbanding of Divisions Three, North and South. Our record against them is excellent and it's over 30 years and 13 matches since we lost to them at Roots Hall. Even when we found ourselves 3-0 down, we managed to salvage a point.

Tomorrow's referee, Stephen Martin from Stafford, has a well below average card count. In his fourth season, he has shown 33 yellows in 13 matches and just 2 reds. He is quite highly rated and gets plenty of Championship appointments and seems to me to fall into the "safe pair of hands" category.

This will be his sixth Southend match with 2 draws, 2 wins and a defeat thus far.

The second match of his League career was our 3-3 draw at Northampton in 2012/13 (all goals in the second half), when Cresswell popped up with a last minute equaliser and he cautioned Ferdinand and Spicer and a couple of theirs.

The second Southend game he did was the home draw with Bradford that same season, a caution apiece (ours was Timlin).

Then came the 2-0 away win at Oxford the season before last. A yellow for Coker and one of theirs.

Later in the same season he presided over our disappointing 1-0 defeat at Torquay - no cards were shown.

And finally, again with no cards, it was a good Good Friday performance last season with the 2-0 win over Mansfield at home which started our run of winning matches that cemented our play-off position.

He did Rochdale twice last season, both away from home, both 3-2. A defeat at Walsall (again cardless) and a win at Swindon.

Assisting will be Chris O'Donnell from Hemel Hempstead and, once again, Ole Saliy, the ex-Ukranian referee now from London. Stuart Butler from Maidstone, who I saw have a terrible match refereeing the Brentwood v Hoddesdon FA Cup replay a few weeks back, will hopefully be required to do little more than the numbers board.

 

[Massimo Giovanni]

I remember most of the games but not the ref; that must be a good indicator?:blush:

 

[geoffmundo]

We have played Rochdale many times since the disbanding of Divisions Three, North and South. Our record against them is excellent and it's over 30 years and 13 matches since we lost to them at Roots Hall. Even when we found ourselves 3-0 down, we managed to salvage a point.

Tomorrow's referee, Stephen Martin from Stafford, has a well below average card count. In his fourth season, he has shown 33 yellows in 13 matches and just 2 reds. He is quite highly rated and gets plenty of Championship appointments and seems to me to fall into the "safe pair of hands" category.

This will be his sixth Southend match with 2 draws, 2 wins and a defeat thus far.

The second match of his League career was our 3-3 draw at Northampton in 2012/13 (all goals in the second half), when Cresswell popped up with a last minute equaliser and he cautioned Ferdinand and Spicer and a couple of theirs.

The second Southend game he did was the home draw with Bradford that same season, a caution apiece (ours was Timlin).

Then came the 2-0 away win at Oxford the season before last. A yellow for Coker and one of theirs.

Later in the same season he presided over our disappointing 1-0 defeat at Torquay - no cards were shown.

And finally, again with no cards, it was a good Good Friday performance last season with the 2-0 win over Mansfield at home which started our run of winning matches that cemented our play-off position.

He did Rochdale twice last season, both away from home, both 3-2. A defeat at Walsall (again cardless) and a win at Swindon.

Assisting will be Chris O'Donnell from Hemel Hempstead and, once again, Ole Saliy, the ex-Ukranian referee now from London. Stuart Butler from Maidstone, who I saw have a terrible match refereeing the Brentwood v Hoddesdon FA Cup replay a few weeks back, will hopefully be required to do little more than the numbers board.

Oh dear, I see a pattern...

 

[Harry Bullocks]

Quality reporting Mick :clap::clap::clap:

 

[Juggler90]

Cheers Mick - top reporting as always

 

[Massimo Giovanni]

Off this ref topic..............BUT I note Mr Hooper had the Brentford/QPR game last night; Are the FA really thinking he is a very good ref? And if so then that doesn't bode well for the rest?

 

[Shrimperforlife]

Off this ref topic..............BUT I note Mr Hooper had the Brentford/QPR game last night; Are the FA really thinking he is a very good ref? And if so then that doesn't bode well for the rest?

Problem is the system of judging is flawed , as refs are mainly from from people who didn't always play the game they get a biased view. What they think is a good effort , many times is frustrating to others , a simple application of the letter of the law doesn't always make for a good performance

 

[Bearded Shrimper]

i thought the ref was pretty good today. shame we weren't (second half)

 

[Ailsa Road Shrimper]

Yes the ref had a good game today, a vast improvement upon last week's!

 

[OldBlueLady]

The West lino didn't seem to understand the offside rule/law at all! Felt the ref was a bit inconsistent and pulled up some things unnecessarily. Not the best, but nowhere near the worst, still end up frustrating you though.

 

[Massimo Giovanni]

Mr Martin was a 7.5 from 10 today; bookings were fair and he controlled things quietly.
The East lino could have helped him a bit more with some of the climbing and shirt hugging (on Mooney especially).
I felt the pen was lucky for us and the yellow about right.
He could easily have given a pen against us in the last 10 minutes; glad he didn't!
AND the 4th official largely confined himself to holding up the light board.

 

[Lord Football]

Problem is the system of judging is flawed , as refs are mainly from from people who didn't always play the game they get a biased view. What they think is a good effort , many times is frustrating to others , a simple application of the letter of the law doesn't always make for a good performance

The system of assessing starts on the parks and goes all the way up to the Premier League. Most refs at League standard will have a mentor - usually a retired football league ref. All League refs (and assistants) get assessed on every game they do. Its a different assessor every time. If their assessments aren't good enough, they can be demoted. The really good thing about assessments is that unlike you and I, the assessor is looking at the game not as a supporter. He will (unlike most who spectate) have a complete knowledge of the Law and how to apply it.

On the Premier League there is a system where a former player will help the referee understand the tactics, this will enable him to get into the correct position when he sees certain things happening etc etc. That system is run by Geoff Pike (former West Ham player).

For the record, today's ref wasn't bad. I don't think ours was a penalty, I'd have been spitting feathers if that had been given against us (and having seen it on the tv, I've not changed my mind).

 

[rayleigh dan]

We we're lucky not to give away a pen at the end, it was an obvious shirt pull and if their player had gone down I reckon he would have (probably rightly) given it.

 

[jaffa1]

Mr Hill wasn't too impressed! ;

"We've fallen foul of another referee who spends too much time in the gym," fumed Hill. "The penalty Southend got was a really, really soft decision and it seems to be all about body beautiful rather than getting the decisions right. "We 100 per cent guaranteed should have had a penalty at the end as well. Nobody would have argued with it. "It was a stonewall penalty and he 100 per cent bottled it."

 

[Firestorm]

The system of assessing starts on the parks and goes all the way up to the Premier League. Most refs at League standard will have a mentor - usually a retired football league ref. All League refs (and assistants) get assessed on every game they do. Its a different assessor every time. If their assessments aren't good enough, they can be demoted. The really good thing about assessments is that unlike you and I, the assessor is looking at the game not as a supporter. He will (unlike most who spectate) have a complete knowledge of the Law and how to apply it.

On the Premier League there is a system where a former player will help the referee understand the tactics, this will enable him to get into the correct position when he sees certain things happening etc etc. That system is run by Geoff Pike (former West Ham player).

For the record, today's ref wasn't bad. I don't think ours was a penalty, I'd have been spitting feathers if that had been given against us (and having seen it on the tv, I've not changed my mind).

Out of interest, why dont you think ours was a pen.
In the area, ball still in play, player is fouled, advanrage not given...was my view

 

[Mick]

The system of assessing starts on the parks and goes all the way up to the Premier League. Most refs at League standard will have a mentor - usually a retired football league ref. All League refs (and assistants) get assessed on every game they do. Its a different assessor every time. If their assessments aren't good enough, they can be demoted. The really good thing about assessments is that unlike you and I, the assessor is looking at the game not as a supporter. He will (unlike most who spectate) have a complete knowledge of the Law and how to apply it.

On the Premier League there is a system where a former player will help the referee understand the tactics, this will enable him to get into the correct position when he sees certain things happening etc etc. That system is run by Geoff Pike (former West Ham player).

For the record, today's ref wasn't bad. I don't think ours was a penalty, I'd have been spitting feathers if that had been given against us (and having seen it on the tv, I've not changed my mind).

Out of interest, why dont you think ours was a pen.
In the area, ball still in play, player is fouled, advanrage not given...was my view

Completely agree. as I said in the other thread:

From the Sky highlights (to which someone has kindly posted a link in another thread), you can clearly see that Leonard gets his shot in just before he is fouled by the keeper. You can also see that, importantly, the ball is still in play at the time of the keepers illegal challenge.

It cannot therefore be red (unless the foul is so bad it qualifies as Serious Foul Play, which it wasn't) as there is no denial of an obvious goalscoring opportunity. Therefore a penalty was the correct decision and if the referee wished to show a card, yellow was the one to show.

My only question would be, did it need a yellow. Would he have cautioned if it had gone in? I doubt it.