Mick
Life President
Tomorrow we have the experienced and normally very decent Mick Russell from St Albans.
He is making his first appearance of the season after recovering from a long injury.
A steady official, this will be his 11th Southend match and his 5th away from Roots Hall.
His first two away matches were on the south coast; the 1-1 draw at Bournemouth when Sodje was injured and the 3-2 defeat at Brighton a few years ago.
Then comes the match when he apparently blotted his copybook in a match I did not see at Swindon the season before last, where, by all accounts, he had a bit of a nightmare. However he was subsequently back to his best in a game I did see at Norwich later that season when it was certainly not his fault we failed to hold on to one point when for much of the game we looked like taking all three.
His first home Southend match was also Freddie Eastwood's first match and we know what happened there! His next home game was the early season victory over Stoke a few years back. His most recent home matches were the 3-3 derby match with Colchester when he cautioned 5 of theirs and none of ours and the somewhat lively 3-2 victory over a fairly unpleasant Hartlepool side involving two penalties and the dismissal of their keeper.
He most recent Southend matches were at home to Morecambe last season, where some might say he wasn't great and failed to dismiss a Morecambe player for an off the ball incident involving Mohsni and, more recently, when he (and we) coasted through a cardless game against Macclesfield (Mohsni got a couple).
A referee who usually officiates with a smile on his face, he looks to allow play to continue where possible and has a well below average card count. Last season he finished with 85 yellows and 5 reds from 40 games, many of which were in the Championship.
Assistants are Ryan Johnson from Manchester and Stephen Ross from Lincolnshire with Mark Duncan from Cheshire doing the 4th official stuff.
He is making his first appearance of the season after recovering from a long injury.
A steady official, this will be his 11th Southend match and his 5th away from Roots Hall.
His first two away matches were on the south coast; the 1-1 draw at Bournemouth when Sodje was injured and the 3-2 defeat at Brighton a few years ago.
Then comes the match when he apparently blotted his copybook in a match I did not see at Swindon the season before last, where, by all accounts, he had a bit of a nightmare. However he was subsequently back to his best in a game I did see at Norwich later that season when it was certainly not his fault we failed to hold on to one point when for much of the game we looked like taking all three.
His first home Southend match was also Freddie Eastwood's first match and we know what happened there! His next home game was the early season victory over Stoke a few years back. His most recent home matches were the 3-3 derby match with Colchester when he cautioned 5 of theirs and none of ours and the somewhat lively 3-2 victory over a fairly unpleasant Hartlepool side involving two penalties and the dismissal of their keeper.
He most recent Southend matches were at home to Morecambe last season, where some might say he wasn't great and failed to dismiss a Morecambe player for an off the ball incident involving Mohsni and, more recently, when he (and we) coasted through a cardless game against Macclesfield (Mohsni got a couple).
A referee who usually officiates with a smile on his face, he looks to allow play to continue where possible and has a well below average card count. Last season he finished with 85 yellows and 5 reds from 40 games, many of which were in the Championship.
Assistants are Ryan Johnson from Manchester and Stephen Ross from Lincolnshire with Mark Duncan from Cheshire doing the 4th official stuff.
