Ref Watch ... Stockport

[Mick]

The referee on Saturday will have been to Roots Hall more often than most of our players. The man in charge is Iain Williamson from Berkshire who is in his 7th season as a League referee. Played non-league for Walton & Hersham until injury forced him into refereeing. He did absolutely no games at all last season which would have been a relief to many after his one-man cardfest the season before when he topped the tables with 138 yellows from 30 games.

We have seen quite a lot of him, this being his tenth Southend match in charge. Eight of the previous nine have been home games, the odd one out being our early season defeat at QPR a couple of years ago. 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 most recently the Cup replay against Telford. His nine matches have produced just 12 goals and in none of the matches have both teams scored.

However, for us. his most memorable appearance at Roots Hall was just a few eventful years ago when, as 4th official, he held up the numbers board at our historic victory over Manchester United.

Very high card count, averaging 3.5 to 4 yellows per match over the last couple of years and not slow with red cards either. Not one of my favourite officials, but he is a referee who it is better to have at home.

Running the lines are Ryan Atkin making his League debut and Marvin Thompson - both from London.

The 4th official is Ian Crouch who hasn't been to Roots Hall since .... er, Tuesday night.

 

[mfurok]

Nice one Mick - keep 'em coming.

 

[Matt the Shrimp]

Hmm, hope the ref doesn't spoil it tomorrow, it being his first game back for a year an' all.

 

[Beefy]

We have seen quite a lot of him, this being his tenth Southend match in charge. Eight of the previous nine have been home games, the odd one out being our early season defeat at QPR a couple of years ago.

Whoever goes in goal for us won't get much protection then, if that QPR game is anything to go by. I seem to remember Flavs being completely taken out of the game by Ray Jones for one of their goals that day.

 

[Streaky]

REF WATCH is back - Now the season can start!

 

[Shrimperforlife]

Whoever goes in goal for us won't get much protection then, if that QPR game is anything to go by. I seem to remember Flavs being completely taken out of the game by Roy Jones for one of their goals that day.

Didn't he get a bad cut and Collis came on?

 

[Beefy]

Yeah that's right. Flavs got completely flattened and had to go off.

 

[Hooly]

Without wishing to start a new thread on only a slightly related matter, I hope Mick will excuse me as I celebrate what is possibly the greatest day in the history of world football.

Watching Sky just now about the appointment of the new Premiershite referees an aside comment leads to the fact that Mick will never again have to type those dreadful words
"The referee on Saturday will be no stranger to Shrimpers fans & is probably the most hated man in football. The man in charge is Steven Graham Bennett from Kent who is in his 2058th season mincing around in the middle pretending to be a League referee."
The ******* **** has retired! :clap:

However it's not all good news as he's has accepted a role as a full time referees coach "in order to share his expertise in developing the next generation of refereeing talent". Have they never seen him in action! :madman:

Sorry Mick. I'm sure you'll point out his good qualities, as referees are duty bound to defend their own, but this is a great day.

 

[Fiftyone]

Without wishing to start a new thread on only a slightly related matter, I hope Mick will excuse me as I celebrate what is possibly the greatest day in the history of world football.

Watching Sky just now about the appointment of the new Premiershite referees an aside comment leads to the fact that Mick will never again have to type those dreadful words
"The referee on Saturday will be no stranger to Shrimpers fans & is probably the most hated man in football. The man in charge is Steven Graham Bennett from Kent who is in his 2058th season mincing around in the middle pretending to be a League referee."
The ******* **** has retired! :clap:

However it's not all good news as he's has accepted a role as a full time referees coach "in order to share his expertise in developing the next generation of refereeing talent". Have they never seen him in action! :madman:

Sorry Mick. I'm sure you'll point out his good qualities, as referees are duty bound to defend their own, but this is a great day.

Isn't he the ref who turned up his guide dog and white stick - shame he left both in the dressing room!!.

 

[south247]

Just a reminder of what I posted the other day about what some other teams think of Mr Williamson:

A few examples: Blackpool - Oh Iain Williamson another in a long line of plonkers who don the black outfit and decide to **** me off. Defeat this time against Southampton, once again a match where we should have got a point. The defeat is a little harder to swallow due the inept referee Iain Williamson who disallowed a goal.

Stockport - The referee today - Mr Iain Williamson - was booed off by BOTH sets of fans at the end of 90 minutes. That give you a hint?

Palace - Some referees have the intelligence to let the game flow and to play advantages, but not this one.Mr Iain Williamson was determined to be the man of the match and he certainly achieved his aim for all the wrong reasons.

Chester - Referee Williamson and his fellow match officials carried out an inspection of the pitch at half time and decided to play on as the weather looked to be improving - but the Berkshire official surprised everyone by abandoning the game 14 minutes into the second period at a time when the playing surface appeared to be in a better condition than it had been in the first half.

 

[Andy_S]

Williamson is in that group of egotistical, look at me I'm the star, planks. Great.

 

[Mick]

Without wishing to start a new thread on only a slightly related matter, I hope Mick will excuse me as I celebrate what is possibly the greatest day in the history of world football.

Watching Sky just now about the appointment of the new Premiershite referees an aside comment leads to the fact that Mick will never again have to type those dreadful words
"The referee on Saturday will be no stranger to Shrimpers fans & is probably the most hated man in football. The man in charge is Steven Graham Bennett from Kent who is in his 2058th season mincing around in the middle pretending to be a League referee."
The ******* **** has retired! :clap:

However it's not all good news as he's has accepted a role as a full time referees coach "in order to share his expertise in developing the next generation of refereeing talent". Have they never seen him in action! :madman:

Sorry Mick. I'm sure you'll point out his good qualities, as referees are duty bound to defend their own, but this is a great day.

Based on most of the matches I've seen him referee, I would be struggling to come up with any good qualities - and this is really the crux of the issue with him. Nearly all the live games I've seen him officiate have been lower division matches and that is where he has been at his worst. He has refereed a number of very high profile Premiership matches rather well but when he drops down to the Championship and below, he obviosly feels these games are beneath him with catastrophic results. But never again !

Other referees we won't see this season, apart from the retiring Wiley and Bennett are:


BRATT, SJ (Steve) - West Midlands - demoted
COOK, SD, (Steven) - Surrey - demoted
LAWS, G (Graham) - Tyne & Wear - retired
SINGH, J (Jarnail) - Middlesex - retired
TAYLOR, P (Paul) - Hertfordshire - retired (a year too late)
THORPE, M (Mike) - Suffolk - retired

In their stead arrive:

BROWN, M (Mark) - East Yorkshire
COOTE, D (David) - Nottinghamshire
DRYSDALE, D (Darren) – Lincolnshire
LEWIS, RL (Rob) - Shropshire
MADLEY, RJ (Bobby) - West Yorkshire
MALONE, BJ (Brendan) - Wiltshire
NAYLOR, MA (Michael) - South Yorkshire

Surprising that London and virtually all of Southern and Eastern England cannot produce a sufficiently competent official, but Yorkshire have three.

 

[EastStandBlue]

That's a shame... Singh has always been impressive when I've seen him officiate.

 

[canveyshrimper]

I don't think many will mourn the departure of Mr Singh after his handling of the Brighton game at Roots Hall two seasons ago.

The name Darren Drysdale rings a bell, is he returning to the list?

 

[Beefy]

I don't think many will mourn the departure of Mr Singh after his handling of the Brighton game at Roots Hall two seasons ago.

He was held up as the best lower league ref on here up until then, though.

 

[Mick]

I don't think many will mourn the departure of Mr Singh after his handling of the Brighton game at Roots Hall two seasons ago.

The name Darren Drysdale rings a bell, is he returning to the list?

Well spotted ! As with Fred Graham, he got demoted and has managed to get back on the List.

 

[OldBlueLady]

In their stead arrive:

BROWN, M (Mark) - East Yorkshire
COOTE, D (David) - Nottinghamshire
DRYSDALE, D (Darren) – Lincolnshire
LEWIS, RL (Rob) - Shropshire
MADLEY, RJ (Bobby) - West Yorkshire
MALONE, BJ (Brendan) - Wiltshire
NAYLOR, MA (Michael) - South Yorkshire

Surprising that London and virtually all of Southern and Eastern England cannot produce a sufficiently competent official, but Yorkshire have three.

Hasn't the former Riding of East Yorkshire been assimilated into the other three Ridings?

 

[south247]

Mick, do you know why Williamson didn't ref any games last season??

 

[Southampton Shrimper]

Hasn't the former Riding of East Yorkshire been assimilated into the other three Ridings?

No, East Yorkshire became the northern part of the county of Humberside in 1974, but that was never a popular move (after all, it contained Grimsby and Cleethorpes...), so the county was broken up in 1996 and the East Riding of Yorkshire became a unitary authority.

:)

 

[south247]

Emotion aside was the ref as bad as he sounded on commentary?