Ref Watch Swindon

[Mick]

Saturday's game sees the appointment of, in my opinion, a very decent referee in Mick Russell, from St Albans.

Last season for him was severely disrupted by injuries but he has done plenty of matches already this season.

A very steady official, this will be his 7th Southend match and his third away from Roots Hall.

His first home Southend match was also Freddie Eastwood's first match and we know what happened there! His next home game was the early season victory over Stoke a few years back. His most recent home matches were the 3-3 derby match with Colchester when he cautioned 5 of theirs and none of ours and the somewhat lively 3-2 victory over a fairly unpleasant Hartlepool side involving two penalties and the dismissal of their keeper.

Both of his previous away matches have been on the south coast; the 1-1 draw at Bournemouth when Sodje was injured and the 3-2 defeat at Brighton a couple of years ago.

These 6 matches have produced 16 cards only 2 of which have been shown to Southend players. His normal card count is about 2 per match.

Assistants are Simon Knapp and Marc Perry from Gloucester and West Midlands respectively with John Busby from Oxford wielding the numbers board.

 

[BLUEBLOOD]

Lets hope Mr Russell doesn't stumble on this and try to even things up somewhat !!!!!!

 

[philtalkin]

Lets hope Mr Russell doesn't stumble on this and try to even things up somewhat !!!!!!

Psychic??????

 

[Hotman]

Saturday's game sees the appointment of, in my opinion, a very decent referee in Mick Russell, from St Albans.
.

very decent?? he was a ****. absolutely unbelievable, spoiled the match and deserved the 90 minutes of abusive chants. 2-1 to the referee

 

[Smiffy]

He was quite possibly the worst ref we have ever had the misfortune of officiating. We have had some bad ones, but this bloke takes the ****.

Disgraceful days work from the mug. He deserves to be demoted to the Borough Combination after that.

I hope he is proud of what he has done today. He ruined the game from start to finish and denied us the three points we probably would of got, had we had a full team and an official who was competent.

I sincerely hope he was being monitored today. If he was then it's curtains for him with any luck.

Any chance of my money back you ****ing **** **** tosspot.

 

[ldnfatso]

in my 29 years of watching football i have never seen a worse refereeing display. Trevor Kettle was made to look quality in comparison to Mr Russell.

 

[jerseyshrimper]

The most shocking refereeing i have ever seen in 55 years of watching football, a disgrace to the game neds banning.

 

[Manchester Shrimper]

in my 29 years of watching football i have never seen a worse refereeing display.

Ditto.

I certainly don't like spending lots of time and money travelling long distances to see Southend lose but I accept it's a part of the package if we don't play well or are unlucky on the day. However, to have the result so clearly influenced by the man in the middle leaves a more bitter taste in the mouth than the most gutless team performance.

I accept it's a fact of life that until they manage to perfect human cloning and create an army of Pierluigi Collinas to referee every game that's played, we're going to be left with some that aren't up to scratch in League One. But that's not the point- I've seen some pretty bad referees in my time but they all tend to give bad decisions both ways so their incompetence usually more-or-less evens itself out over the 90 minutes. Mr Russell, on the other hand, gave pretty much every decision Swindon's way. It wasn't just the free-kick he wrongly awarded for the first goal or the second booking he gave Christophe for being fouled. It was the sheer amount of free kicks they were awarded for clean tackles (especially around our box) and the fact that our players seemed to get booked for the tiniest things but when they went in unfairly (I'm thinking of one foul on White in particular)- nothing. It got to the point where I was wincing every time one of our players tackled one of theirs, afraid that the ref was going to award a free kick for no reason and every time one of our players was fouled I expected play to continue.

The guy was an absolute joke.

 

[Billy Bests boot laces]

Unfortunately this seems to be the norm today. I estimate there must be at least 15 games a season when the referee totally ruins the game. Whats the answer?, i dont know, but it makes watching games more frustrating year by year. I can understand fans who decide to stay away, football 'a mans game', not any more.

 

[rlb999]

I find criticism of referees tiresome.

 

[Smiffy]

I find criticism of referees tiresome.

Why?

This **** deserves all he gets. He was ****ing shocking.

 

[jerseyshrimper]

Why?

This **** deserves all he gets. He was ****ing shocking.

That is an understatement, you would need to go a long way to find a poorer referee

 

[ldnfatso]

I find criticism of referees tiresome.

I can only assume you wasn't there at the game otherwise you wouldn't have come out with such an idiotic comment!

 

[roots_maul]

I find criticism of referees tiresome.

I find your lazy dismissive comment tiresome.

Today was a poor performance by the referee in many decisions, or lack of, that he made. I think Mr. Russell hit an '11' on the Trevor Kettle dial of poor officialdom.

 

[Maldon Blues]

It's easy to say, but he was the worst referee I have ever seen.

People could look at isolated incidents, in this game maybe the red card, but it's so deeper than that. From the first whistle to the last he was disgraceful.

The most bias, appalling referee I have ever seen. Some statement, but as anyone there would testify, a well-supported one.

There should be an FA and Football League investigation into his performance.

 

[Smiffy]

It's easy to say, but he was the worst referee I have ever seen.

People could look at isolated incidents, in this game maybe the red card, but it's so deeper than that. From the first whistle to the last he was disgraceful.

The most bias, appalling referee I have ever seen. Some statement, but as anyone there would testify, a well-supported one.

There should be an FA and Football League investigation into his performance.

Yep.

Maybe we can use the power of the Zone to inundate the FA with letters of disgust?

 

[OldBlueLady]

It takes a lot for me to scream at a ref as much as I did yesterday and I apologise to all within earshot, but he really was the most appalling and incompetent official I have ever had the misfortune to see in charge of one of our games.

 

[fredheim_holm]

Wow, he must have been bad. Many posters saying the worst they've ever seen. I wonder if he had a large sum of money on a Swindon win.. :report:

 

[Manchester Shrimper]

Wow, he must have been bad. Many posters saying the worst they've ever seen. I wonder if he had a large sum of money on a Swindon win.. :report:

You joke but he's either very easily influenced by a home crowd, he had some reason to give everything Swindon's way (e.g. his missus ran off with someone from Southend) or something more sinister was going on.

I remember as bad as Kettle was, he gave a couple of shocking decisions our way as well and I came away from the Stockport game thinking he was useless rather than biased. I'm not usually one to moan about refs- I don't envy them, I wouldn't like to do their job and in some ways I feel for them. I'm sure all of us have off-days at work and most of us are lucky enough to work in a profession where this doesn't lead to us being abused by a few thousand people.

That said, this guy was something else. He was either spineless in the face of a home crowd or had an agenda. It amazed me that he's quite experienced. On yesterday's form, I could imagine him refereeing a game at Elland Road where every time a Leeds player was tackled in the box he'd award a penalty.

I've never written a complaint letter in my life but if the highlights confirm he was as bad as I thought on the day, I may be tempted to drop the Football League an e-mail.

 

[Magnum PI]

... we always get **** refs !!

..its true isnt it? Even Claridge agreed it shouldnt have been a sending off