Mick
Life President
We hold a slender lead over Blackpool in League matches - 9 wins to their 8 with a couple of draws.
Tomorrow's match will be presided over by one of the oldest League referees. The man in charge is experienced referee, Andy Haines from Tyne and Wear who is doing his third Southend match of the season although the other two were just Checkatrades.
He also, a few seasons ago, completed his sequence of three successive Accrington v Southend matches in consecutive seasons.
Fortunately those three Accrington aways with this referee contained little in the way of controversy. Three years ago we won 1-0 with a Lee Barnard penalty. Yellows for Prosser and Barnard and a couple of theirs. Four years ago it was just the one yellow to Accrington in a 1-1 draw (we scored both goals) and the year before that he sent off Cresswell (not unreasonably) and showed just one yellow, again to the home team and again a 1-1 draw.
Since that last Accrington game, he's refereed Southend five times. Firstly he stood in as a late replacement in our so disappointing final match at Morecambe, so he did our first and last League match that season. Despite just the one yellow for Deegan, he didn't impress in that match.
Then more recently he took charge of the season before last's 3-1 defeat at Port Vale, with yellows for Coker, Atkinson and Timlin.
Next was last season's home match against MK Dons - we lost the match 2-1 and won the bookings by the same score. Ours were Wordsworth and Robinson, theirs ex-Blue Ben Reeves.
Finally those Checkatrade matches, the defeat at Gillingham with 7 yellows, our four going to Oxley, White, McGlashan and Ba followed by the win over Reading U 21s. The only yellow went to Fortune although I remember absolutely nothing about that game.
This is his eleventh season as a League referee, although we had seen little of him for nearly four years before the first of his Accrington trilogy - just the Bury away Cup match earlier that same season. Just as well, some might say bearing in mind he awarded five penalties against us in just four matches, the penultimate of which was laughable. In that drawn Cup match he cautioned Phillips and a couple of theirs.
Previous to that we actually ran out 2-1 winners at Peterborough in 2008/9 and notwithstanding the penalty decision his performance was poor, especially in the first half. Just one caution for us - goal scorer JFC.
In the same season he did the defeat at Carlisle. Two cautions for us (3 for them) - JFC and Robson-Kanu. The year before that he took charge of our away win (3-1) at Crewe with again a couple of cautions - Mulgrew and Francis (knew they'd never do much !).
So despite the penalties we haven't got too bad a record with him.
His last trip to Blackpool was for their home defeat to Wigan earlier this season.
Last season he has an average card count with 113 yellows and 5 reds from 37 matches. Similarly this season with 85 yellows and 5 reds from 28 games.
Assistants will be Michael Denton from Todmorden, West Yorkshire and Alan Clayton from Manchester. Fourth Official is Anthony Moore from Stockport. He was the Assistant who upset John Sheridan in that highly publicised incident, with Matt Donohue also involved.
Tomorrow's match will be presided over by one of the oldest League referees. The man in charge is experienced referee, Andy Haines from Tyne and Wear who is doing his third Southend match of the season although the other two were just Checkatrades.
He also, a few seasons ago, completed his sequence of three successive Accrington v Southend matches in consecutive seasons.
Fortunately those three Accrington aways with this referee contained little in the way of controversy. Three years ago we won 1-0 with a Lee Barnard penalty. Yellows for Prosser and Barnard and a couple of theirs. Four years ago it was just the one yellow to Accrington in a 1-1 draw (we scored both goals) and the year before that he sent off Cresswell (not unreasonably) and showed just one yellow, again to the home team and again a 1-1 draw.
Since that last Accrington game, he's refereed Southend five times. Firstly he stood in as a late replacement in our so disappointing final match at Morecambe, so he did our first and last League match that season. Despite just the one yellow for Deegan, he didn't impress in that match.
Then more recently he took charge of the season before last's 3-1 defeat at Port Vale, with yellows for Coker, Atkinson and Timlin.
Next was last season's home match against MK Dons - we lost the match 2-1 and won the bookings by the same score. Ours were Wordsworth and Robinson, theirs ex-Blue Ben Reeves.
Finally those Checkatrade matches, the defeat at Gillingham with 7 yellows, our four going to Oxley, White, McGlashan and Ba followed by the win over Reading U 21s. The only yellow went to Fortune although I remember absolutely nothing about that game.
This is his eleventh season as a League referee, although we had seen little of him for nearly four years before the first of his Accrington trilogy - just the Bury away Cup match earlier that same season. Just as well, some might say bearing in mind he awarded five penalties against us in just four matches, the penultimate of which was laughable. In that drawn Cup match he cautioned Phillips and a couple of theirs.
Previous to that we actually ran out 2-1 winners at Peterborough in 2008/9 and notwithstanding the penalty decision his performance was poor, especially in the first half. Just one caution for us - goal scorer JFC.
In the same season he did the defeat at Carlisle. Two cautions for us (3 for them) - JFC and Robson-Kanu. The year before that he took charge of our away win (3-1) at Crewe with again a couple of cautions - Mulgrew and Francis (knew they'd never do much !).
So despite the penalties we haven't got too bad a record with him.
His last trip to Blackpool was for their home defeat to Wigan earlier this season.
Last season he has an average card count with 113 yellows and 5 reds from 37 matches. Similarly this season with 85 yellows and 5 reds from 28 games.
Assistants will be Michael Denton from Todmorden, West Yorkshire and Alan Clayton from Manchester. Fourth Official is Anthony Moore from Stockport. He was the Assistant who upset John Sheridan in that highly publicised incident, with Matt Donohue also involved.
