Mick
Life President
The Boxing Day derby will be refereed by 44 year old Grant Hegley from Hertfordshire. An experienced official, this will be his 14th competitive match at Roots Hall (won 8, drawn 1, lost 4) He has still not yet refereed a Southend away League game although he officiated in the 2-0 LDV win at Northampton. His most recent League appearances were this season against Southampton and last season against Orient and, as a late replacement, against Crewe which in my opinion went okay.
He is a regular official for home friendlies, the most recent of which was his handling of the Fulham game last season.
He should not be judged purely on the basis of one decision which I am still not convinced was incorrect. He is a decent referee.
He has a somewhat laissez faire style to his refereeing, resulting in far less than average cards. He has only sent off three players in nearly four years. Half of his matches this season have been cardless (10 out of 20) and these 20 matches have produced just 18 yellow cards.
His approach is probably because he's never going to make it to the top, he earns a good living from the legal profession and refereeing is genuinely a hobby to him.
He hit the headlines three seasons ago when he was suspended for too lenient refereeing. Shortly after that he showed ten yellow cards in a game twice. I’m sure the assessors must have been much happier with that. Thankfully, he has long since reverted back to his original style.
Despite this approach he seems to be back in favour with those in power as a good number of his appointments are at Championship level.
Assisting Mr Hegley will be Dave Bushell and Gary Evetts (regular visitors to Roots Hall) and 4th official will be Ukrainian Ole Saliy.
He is a regular official for home friendlies, the most recent of which was his handling of the Fulham game last season.
He should not be judged purely on the basis of one decision which I am still not convinced was incorrect. He is a decent referee.
He has a somewhat laissez faire style to his refereeing, resulting in far less than average cards. He has only sent off three players in nearly four years. Half of his matches this season have been cardless (10 out of 20) and these 20 matches have produced just 18 yellow cards.
His approach is probably because he's never going to make it to the top, he earns a good living from the legal profession and refereeing is genuinely a hobby to him.
He hit the headlines three seasons ago when he was suspended for too lenient refereeing. Shortly after that he showed ten yellow cards in a game twice. I’m sure the assessors must have been much happier with that. Thankfully, he has long since reverted back to his original style.
Despite this approach he seems to be back in favour with those in power as a good number of his appointments are at Championship level.
Assisting Mr Hegley will be Dave Bushell and Gary Evetts (regular visitors to Roots Hall) and 4th official will be Ukrainian Ole Saliy.
