Mick
Life President
Tonight's referee is Stuart Attwell from Warwickshire, refereeing his 5th Southend match.
A somewhat notorious official, Mr Attwell was promoted to the Select Group after just two unexceptional seasons as a League referee. It is fair to say that this fast-tracking favoritism caused more than a little resentment in the refereeing fraternity and there were plenty waiting to see him fall flat on his face ... which he duly did. Despite being miles out of his depth he continued to enjoy the unswerving support of David Elleray in particular and the PGMO in general and got rewarded for his incompetence with the award of a UEFA badge.
Even his friends in high places realised it wasn't working and half way through last season he was dropped from the Select Group. He will hopefully have learnt much in his two and a half years of failure as a top official and he is now looking to rebuild his career in the depths of the Football League and gain the experience he was so sorely lacking when he was promoted.
His last Southend match was earlier this season for the 1-0 victory over the now rapidly improving Wycombe thanks to an early Assombalonga goal. We also shaded the yellow cards 4-3. Opinion was mixed about his performance but you could not fault his attempts to play advantage!
Before his previous Southend game I wrote "As we take on Chelsea competitively for the 3rd time in the club's history, referee Stuart Attwell from Warwickshire referees us for the 3rd time. (The other two were one win, one defeat ... I'd take the draw to complete the set!)". Well we all know what happened there and he had a good match.
His other two Southend games were also refereed well enough. Swindon at home and Millwall in 2007/8. He sent off Scannell at the New Den but I think there were few complaints.
His 30 matches to date this season have produced a below average 85 yellows and 2 reds. The seven yellows shown against Wycombe are comfortably his highest of the season. His last match was the televised game between Brighton and Hull and, without wishing to tempt fate, his season seems to be going pretty well.
Assisting will be first year lino Constantine Hatzidakis from Bromley and ginger-haired schoolteacher from Ipswich, Carl Fitch. Standing by with the numbers board will be Jake Hillier from New Barnet.
A somewhat notorious official, Mr Attwell was promoted to the Select Group after just two unexceptional seasons as a League referee. It is fair to say that this fast-tracking favoritism caused more than a little resentment in the refereeing fraternity and there were plenty waiting to see him fall flat on his face ... which he duly did. Despite being miles out of his depth he continued to enjoy the unswerving support of David Elleray in particular and the PGMO in general and got rewarded for his incompetence with the award of a UEFA badge.
Even his friends in high places realised it wasn't working and half way through last season he was dropped from the Select Group. He will hopefully have learnt much in his two and a half years of failure as a top official and he is now looking to rebuild his career in the depths of the Football League and gain the experience he was so sorely lacking when he was promoted.
His last Southend match was earlier this season for the 1-0 victory over the now rapidly improving Wycombe thanks to an early Assombalonga goal. We also shaded the yellow cards 4-3. Opinion was mixed about his performance but you could not fault his attempts to play advantage!
Before his previous Southend game I wrote "As we take on Chelsea competitively for the 3rd time in the club's history, referee Stuart Attwell from Warwickshire referees us for the 3rd time. (The other two were one win, one defeat ... I'd take the draw to complete the set!)". Well we all know what happened there and he had a good match.
His other two Southend games were also refereed well enough. Swindon at home and Millwall in 2007/8. He sent off Scannell at the New Den but I think there were few complaints.
His 30 matches to date this season have produced a below average 85 yellows and 2 reds. The seven yellows shown against Wycombe are comfortably his highest of the season. His last match was the televised game between Brighton and Hull and, without wishing to tempt fate, his season seems to be going pretty well.
Assisting will be first year lino Constantine Hatzidakis from Bromley and ginger-haired schoolteacher from Ipswich, Carl Fitch. Standing by with the numbers board will be Jake Hillier from New Barnet.
