Ref Watch ........ Barnsley H

[Mick]

Although we have got the better of games against Barnsley over the years, we haven't beaten them at home in 6 attempts over the last twenty years. In fact last time we got maximum points off them at Roots Hall, Phil Gridelet scored!

Tomorrow's referee is Charles Breakspear from Walton-on-Thames. He has refereed three Southend matches before and in the first two he sent off an opposing player. Sadly we only got a defeat and a draw (and subsequent penalty shoot-out defeat) to show for our numerical advantage.

He is one of the less experienced officials with this being his third season.

Those previous matches were, firstly, our 3-1 home defeat to Morecambe in 2013/14. Their sub got a red some 7 minutes after coming on and there was a yellow apiece (Timlin for us) and last season he presided over the JPT match at Wimbledon where unusually all four cards (3 yellows and a red) went to the home team.

His most recent Southend match was his unconvincing performance in last season's 0-0 home draw with Burton - a yellow for Prosser and three of theirs. This match came at the beginning of that dire run of 6 hours football without a goal from either team at Roots Hall.

His yellow card count is high-ish this year with 39 from 10 games but not a single red .... yet! (by this time last season he'd shown 6 red cards) .

He has not refereed Barnsley before.

Assisting are Tranmere Rovers supporter and ex-semipro player for Newtown (in the Welsh League), Anthony Da Costa now from Cambridge and Robert Mackay from Bedford. Dean Treleaven from Portsmouth is Fourth Official.

 

[Harry Bullocks]

Excellent Mick, thanks :clap:

 

[yogi bear up the cagire]

wrong thread!

 

[Lord Football]

Wow. That's as bad as I've ever seen. Yards outside the box.

 

[Jay_SUFC]

Awful decision

 

[secondalibi]

Terrible Ref. Also look like he's determined to send somebody off today. Penalty decision was a joke.

 

[Lord Football]

You know its bad when I moan. He was dreadful. That first half performance was as poor as I've seen. Penalty was terrible, not even close to being in the box. Caution on White for being kicked all over the place for five minutes. No protection to players on the ball. Cautions not given when should have, cautions given when not. No consistency. Terrible. On that first 45 minutes, I wouldn't let him lose on a vaguely difficult veterans game. That bad.

I'm looking forward to OBL's comments..................... :)

 

[mattitouk]

Agreed terrible ref today, off all the yellows he issued today, he bottled it in giving Winnall a 2nd yellow at the start of the 2nd half. Barnsley should have been down to 10 men from 47 minutes onwards.

Also the Wordsworth yellow card straight after his goal looked highly debatable to me.

 

[cerbera45]

After Barnsley scored their penalty I was surprised he did not run over to join in on the celebrations.

 

[OldBlueLady]

I know you've been waiting for my comments! :raspberry: Didn't have a clue on the penalty, difficult to judge from the perspective of low down in the middle of the West...it looked a long way over though. Having seen it on the highlights, it looked a lot closer and I wasn't surprised the penalty was given.

What frustrated me today was the inconsistency. John White was getting assaulted by several of their players in the first half but the ref just kept "having a word" - seemed like he'd "had a word" with everyone except the goalkeeper before half time. When finally he booked someone, he also booked JW - mad! Then, Woody goes and commits a foul and goes straight in the book. Several others of our players suffered and yet, in reverse, you practically only had to breathe on one of their players for them to go down as if they'd been shot.

And why on earth with the disallowed goal did the lino wait so long to raise the flag? I wouldn't have said he's the worst ref I've seen this season but he wasn't very good, such a shame after having had such a good one last week.

Frankly, I was glad we didn't get anyone sent off, could easily have happened.....

 

[Cockle43]

You know its bad when I moan. He was dreadful. That first half performance was as poor as I've seen. Penalty was terrible, not even close to being in the box. Caution on White for being kicked all over the place for five minutes. No protection to players on the ball. Cautions not given when should have, cautions given when not. No consistency. Terrible. On that first 45 minutes, I wouldn't let him lose on a vaguely difficult veterans game. That bad.

I'm looking forward to OBL's comments..................... :)

I was anticipating that reaction, LF, certainly one of the most riduculous displays I've seen in a long while anywhere. I actually watched the second half today with a friend who is a very experienced ref in the north of Essex and his opinion was exactly the same, 'He'd be lucky to get a game in our Sunday League, and he certainly wouldn't get a second....' He was absolutely incredulous and reckoned he'd lost proper control of the game and any respect from the players in the first 10 minutes, he maintained that must some sort of record!

I don't normally criticise refs as I appreciate they do a difficult job but in Mr Breakspear's case I will make an exception, that was pretty much as awful as it gets. :nope:

 

[Jbd2502]

What a to$$er he was today! Diabolical performance!

 

[MR G]

Shocker!!!

 

[Silencer]

Totally inept and seemingly out of his depth. It is so nice to be able to win when moaning about the officials so it proves that it's not a case of sour grapes. For a twenty minute spell in the first half the referee lost it, I would have bet my mortgage on at least one red being shown.

The Lino towards the East Stand wasn't much better and the fourth official was far too hands on and busy, he caused more trouble than needed

 

[AndyT]

Spot on, 'Silencer'.

I didn't think he had a totally terrible game, but I think, like you say, he lost control of the game after the penalty, though the players didn't help the situation.

He needed to calm the match down, rather than wave cards about. The JW and their fella yellows were ridiculous.

Ironically, though, we produced our best spell of football when the game got niggly and the crowd really got going.

Yellow cards are odd things at times. They are meant to calm things down and be a deterrent, but they actually made things worse yesterday.

That said, it made the 1st half real edge of the seat stuff. Bring it on more often!

 

[Fiftyone]

Where's Mick?.:unsure:

 

[Special Blue]

Where's Mick?.:unsure:

He's been discussing with the ref his mistakes since he blew for
Full time:smile:

 

[Mick]

Where's Mick?.:unsure:

Wasn't at this game so only the TV highlights to go on, but from my previous experience of this official I'm not surprised. I described him as unconvincing, but am prepared to accept that was on the charitable side.

The penalty incident appears to be pretty much on the line so really can't be criticised and it didn't meet the criteria for DOGSO so, again, yellow cannot be argued. Haven't seen Bentley charge out of goal like that since that horrible away game at Newport!

 

[Mick]

Assisting are Tranmere Rovers supporter and ex-semipro player for Newtown (in the Welsh League), Anthony Da Costa now from Cambridge and Robert Mackay from Bedford. Dean Treleaven from Portsmouth is Fourth Official.

Just for the record Robert Mackay was a "no show" and was replaced on the line by Matt Eva from Tongham in Surrey.

 

[leroyjean]

Haven't seen Bentley charge out of goal like that since that horrible away game at Newport!

We call it charging out and think of it as a reckless decision, but it's all to do with timing, isn't it. If Dan had arrived a tenth of a second earlier we'd all have been praising him for a good decision - which is precisely what happened in a very recent game, when he came out from the north goal, and was a LONG way out of his area when he dispatched the ball to St Mary's churchyard.