Ref Watch ..... Wycombe at home

[Mick]

Today's referee is Stuart Attwell from Warwickshire, refereeing his 4th Southend match.

A somewhat notorious official, Mr Attwell was promoted to the Select Group after just two unexceptional seasons as a League referee. It is fair to say that this fast-tracking favoritism caused more than a little resentment in the refereeing fraternity and there were plenty waiting to see him fall flat on his face ... which he duly did. Despite being miles out of his depth he continued to enjoy the unswerving support of David Elleray in particular and the PGMO in general and got rewarded for his incompetence with the award of a UEFA badge.

Even his friends in high places realised it wasn't working and half way through last season he was dropped from the Select Group. He will hopefully have learnt much in his two and a half years of failure as a top official and he is now looking to rebuild his career in the depths of the Football League and gain the experience he was so sorely lacking when he was promoted.

Before his last Southend game I wrote "As we take on Chelsea competitively for the 3rd time in the club's history, referee Stuart Attwell from Warwickshire referees us for the 3rd time. (The other two were one win, one defeat ... I'd take the draw to complete the set!)". Well we all know what happened there and he had a good match.

His previous Southend games were also refereed well enough. Swindon at home and Millwall in 2007/8. He sent off Scannell at the New Den but I think there were few complaints.

His 3 matches to date this season have produced just 7 cards.

Assisting will be Jake Hillier from New Barnet and Dave Margetts from Harlow. Standing by with the numbers board will be Lee Venamore from Maidstone and the assessor will once again be Bill Jordan, ex-League referee from Tring.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

Awful decision to send off Scannell. He stood in the centre circle all game and as soon as a black player made a tackle in front of the Millwall fans he sent him off. It was the only time he ventured within chucking distance of the Millwall fans. We didn`t get a decision all day.Never seen a ref so cowed by a team`s fans` reputation.

 

[OldBlueLady]

Awful decision to send off Scannell. He stood in the centre circle all game and as soon as a black player made a tackle in front of the Millwall fans he sent him off. It was the only time he ventured within chucking distance of the Millwall fans. We didn`t get a decision all day.Never seen a ref so cowed by a team`s fans` reputation.

This was the game, wasn't it, where Scannell had barely come on, after being subbed on (possibly for Barney?) and went flying into a tackle? I don't remember thinking it was an awful decision at the time, I thought it was quite understandable, though I'm sure I remonstrated about it!

I think this was also the game where the Millwall crowd were playing keepy-uppy with the ball whenever it went into the crowd, and the officials just didn't know what to do. Hopefully we'll get better decisions today.

 

[mfurok]

Awful decision to send off Scannell. He stood in the centre circle all game and as soon as a black player made a tackle in front of the Millwall fans he sent him off. It was the only time he ventured within chucking distance of the Millwall fans. We didn`t get a decision all day.Never seen a ref so cowed by a team`s fans` reputation.

The tackle was so bad it had to be a sending off...........and I liked Scannell.

 

[mattytheshrimper]

Such a crap ref. luckiy he didn't have any big decisions to make today but had he then I bet they would have gone against us.

 

[Onion_Bag_Dave]

Clueless. Completely clueless.

 

[Medway Blue]

He was bloody awful.

 

[canveyshrimper]

Clueless. Completely clueless.

Thing is he wasn't, too many refs do not allow or won't play advantage, Attwell IMO did this very well. One in the first half where he let a poor tackle go as Blues were on the attack, when the attack broke down he came back and booked the Wycombe player.

 

[Onion_Bag_Dave]

Thing is he wasn't, too many refs do not allow or won't play advantage, Attwell IMO did this very well. One in the first half where he let a poor tackle go as Blues were on the attack, when the attack broke down he came back and booked the Wycombe player.

He tried very hard to let the game flow but the more it flowed the more he missed! Countless things wrong! Simple things like what way a throw in should be!

Pathetic.

 

[Suffolk Blue]

I thought I saw the most blatant example of Obstruction today where Doherty bear-hugged Assombalonga (or perhaps Tomlin), to stop him chasing after a ball that he'd knocked past. But I obviously don't understand the laws of the game as Atwell and the Asst Ref (I still call them linesmen) saw nothing wrong with it.

 

[fbm]

I'd be interested to hear other refs views actually. As fans, we see every referee as practically useless but I thought he got pretty much every decision spot on. He tried to let the game flow which always adds to the entertainment. There were some soft free kicks given to be fair but generally I thought he was pretty good.

 

[OldBlueLady]

For me it was the "handballs" as alluded to in my match ratings. There were 6 or 7 that looked likely, 3 in the penalty area, none given - of course, I accept that our view was probably not very good, but I'd be interested in other's thoughts.

Doherty was blatantly fouling Assombalonga, and got away with it 90% of the time.

 

[Sutton Who]

BBC Essex didn't think Attwell was having a good game. They were questioning why Doherty was aloud to hold Assombalonga numerous times and not getting penalised for it. Also said that Wycombe seemed to be getting the rub of the 50/50 challenges

 

[OldBlueLady]

BBC Essex didn't think Attwell was having a good game. They were questioning why Doherty was aloud to hold Assombalonga numerous times and not getting penalised for it. Also said that Wycombe seemed to be getting the rub of the 50/50 challenges

And the 60/40 & 70/30 ones! I'm guessing we had a lot more given against than we won!

 

[robboc]

I'd be interested to hear other refs views actually. As fans, we see every referee as practically useless but I thought he got pretty much every decision spot on. He tried to let the game flow which always adds to the entertainment. There were some soft free kicks given to be fair but generally I thought he was pretty good.

I wasn't at the game but I spoke to a fellow referee who was and he said the same as you.

I hate to slate my own, but Southend fans are more critical of the referee than a standard set of supporters and are wrong in doing so more often than not. Sometimes I wish the energy in slamming the ref was directed into supporting the team as then we might get a small trace of atmosphere at RH.

Just a thought.

 

[londonblue]

I'd be interested to hear other refs views actually. As fans, we see every referee as practically useless but I thought he got pretty much every decision spot on. He tried to let the game flow which always adds to the entertainment. There were some soft free kicks given to be fair but generally I thought he was pretty good.

Indeed. I didn't think he was too bad. The only thing I would say though, is that the game wasn't particularly dirty, and yet there were 7 bookings. That said, I don't think I had any complaints with any individual booking.

 

[Lord Football]

Someone asked from a view from ref... so here goes. When you shout "you don't what you're doing" I generally think "well, I do".

Satuday's ref did ok. Managed the game, communicated well and didn't get phased by anything. He played good advantages, and brought it back if it didn't work. Someone asked about obstruction. Its not in the Laws and hasn't been since the last century. Its either a foul or it isn't. If I am honest, if you give that sort of thing the game just becomes one great big string of free kicks. So, no problem from me there. Whilst I was watching the game, as opposing to assessing the ref, I did not him get down into the corners, which is also good, many cut their diagonals.

He didn't have anything really crunchy to do, so really hard to assess if he was good, bad or indifferent. One or two decisions that may have gone the other way or he looked to have got wrong (but you'll never see any ref get absolutely everything correct), but all in all a fairly straight forward and solid performance.

 

[blue sky]

Dohery spent the whole game wrestling our front 2, and his behaviour at corners was akin to a WWF performance, how the ref/lino didnt see it is beyond me.

 

[Lord Football]

see above. It happens in every game and is never given as a free kick. Its part and parcel of the game and our defenders are equally culpable.

 

[FD Shrimper]

I agree it happens in every game but some of the grappling that went on, in my opinion, were fouls.