Mick
Life President
Regular League matches at Burton are tied at two apiece and I think most would be happy with our first draw there.
Unsurprisingly, they have appointed an experienced official to this top of the table clash.
Man in charge tomorrow is James Linington from Newport, Isle of Wight. He is a quite highly rated referee in his seventh year having previously been a Select Group Assistant Referee and was being touted as a possibility to make it right to the top - although he seems to have been overtaken in the pecking order. He will be refereeing his seventh Southend match.
He has nearly always looked pretty reasonable or better when I have seen him referee (which includes the Dagenham play-off final at Wembley) and will allow the game to flow if given the opportunity.
His last Southend match was the away match at Cheltenham earlier this season when Conor Clifford scored the only goal of the game. He sent off one of theirs in addition to two cautions to each team. Binnon-Williams and Weston were our two.
Before that it was the rather damp home game against Newport last season, which he refereed rather well, except for his failure to get a grip on the time wasting.
Prior to that, firstly the 3-0 home win against Carlisle in 2008/9 and then the following season's 1-1 draw at Wycombe. For Southend he only cautioned Grant and Macca respectively in those two matches. Then more recently, the year before last, he was in charge of our wretched performance when we lost 2-0 at home to Plymouth.
Then came the game in which he was less impressive - the home game against Dagenham & Redbridge in the League when Phillips was dismissed (on the say so of an Assistant Referee) with a couple of yellows for us and one for them. Even though he was way short of his usual standard and somewhat inconsistent, I didn't think he was quite as terrible as was made out. The appeal against the Phillips dismissal was unsuccessful.
His 31 games so far this season have seen a below average 84 yellows and a high 8 reds.
Thirteen of those games, including his last four, have been Championship appointments - a higher percentage than all but a handful of Football League referees.
Assistant Referees are Brummie, Andy Hendley who co-incidentally was one of Linington's "linos" at Cheltenham and one-time barman and now News Editor, James Wilson from Northwich, Cheshire. Richard Wigglesworth from Doncaster is Fourth Official.
Unsurprisingly, they have appointed an experienced official to this top of the table clash.
Man in charge tomorrow is James Linington from Newport, Isle of Wight. He is a quite highly rated referee in his seventh year having previously been a Select Group Assistant Referee and was being touted as a possibility to make it right to the top - although he seems to have been overtaken in the pecking order. He will be refereeing his seventh Southend match.
He has nearly always looked pretty reasonable or better when I have seen him referee (which includes the Dagenham play-off final at Wembley) and will allow the game to flow if given the opportunity.
His last Southend match was the away match at Cheltenham earlier this season when Conor Clifford scored the only goal of the game. He sent off one of theirs in addition to two cautions to each team. Binnon-Williams and Weston were our two.
Before that it was the rather damp home game against Newport last season, which he refereed rather well, except for his failure to get a grip on the time wasting.
Prior to that, firstly the 3-0 home win against Carlisle in 2008/9 and then the following season's 1-1 draw at Wycombe. For Southend he only cautioned Grant and Macca respectively in those two matches. Then more recently, the year before last, he was in charge of our wretched performance when we lost 2-0 at home to Plymouth.
Then came the game in which he was less impressive - the home game against Dagenham & Redbridge in the League when Phillips was dismissed (on the say so of an Assistant Referee) with a couple of yellows for us and one for them. Even though he was way short of his usual standard and somewhat inconsistent, I didn't think he was quite as terrible as was made out. The appeal against the Phillips dismissal was unsuccessful.
His 31 games so far this season have seen a below average 84 yellows and a high 8 reds.
Thirteen of those games, including his last four, have been Championship appointments - a higher percentage than all but a handful of Football League referees.
Assistant Referees are Brummie, Andy Hendley who co-incidentally was one of Linington's "linos" at Cheltenham and one-time barman and now News Editor, James Wilson from Northwich, Cheshire. Richard Wigglesworth from Doncaster is Fourth Official.
