Mick
Life President
As we look to maintain our 100% record against Brentford in the FA Cup, Saturday's referee is Dean Whitestone from Northampton, in his seventh season as a Football League referee. He is the second referee from Northampton in 5 days and I can safely say he is both taller and, normally, better than the previous one. He is a referee we have seen a lot of at Roots Hall but not much away from home.
His last Southend match was the game at Shrewsbury last season, a match which for me, more than any other, cost us promotion. A match that was there for the taking after an early home dismissal. He also cautioned Timlin and Dickinson and their keeper in a strong refereeing performance.
He has refereed eight games at Roots Hall. He was here twice the season before last for the league win against Torquay and the Cup replay (a proper "replay") with Macclesfield (just 2 and 3 cautions respectively). The season before that saw two visits also. Firstly, the Friday night 0-0 draw with Millwall (I hear tickets are still available!), when he did pretty well in the face of some uncompromising football from the visitors; he cautioned 5 of theirs and a couple of ours. He also did the home 1-1 draw with Wycombe, cautioning 3 of theirs and one of ours.
Prior to that, his most recent visits were four seasons ago for the opening game win over Peterborough (when three visitors were cautioned) and later that season against Tranmere when we won 2-1 (again three visitors were cautioned). Before that was the 1-0 defeat against Carlisle five seasons ago in which his performance was probably better than the 8 cautions might imply. His other visit was in the previous season when he officiated in the Leicester home draw in which he sent off Richie Foran. Previously to these, he was in charge of the away draw at Coventry which I believe he refereed reasonably well.
He is an up and coming referee who had a spell in the the "talent group" and gets plenty of Championship appointments. His card count is decidedly average with 75 yellows and 3 reds from 23 games.
Assistants are Michael Webb from Woking and Matthew Buonassisi (previously Matty McLaughlin) from Bedford. Neil Davies from Merseyside (!) will be 4th Official.
His last Southend match was the game at Shrewsbury last season, a match which for me, more than any other, cost us promotion. A match that was there for the taking after an early home dismissal. He also cautioned Timlin and Dickinson and their keeper in a strong refereeing performance.
He has refereed eight games at Roots Hall. He was here twice the season before last for the league win against Torquay and the Cup replay (a proper "replay") with Macclesfield (just 2 and 3 cautions respectively). The season before that saw two visits also. Firstly, the Friday night 0-0 draw with Millwall (I hear tickets are still available!), when he did pretty well in the face of some uncompromising football from the visitors; he cautioned 5 of theirs and a couple of ours. He also did the home 1-1 draw with Wycombe, cautioning 3 of theirs and one of ours.
Prior to that, his most recent visits were four seasons ago for the opening game win over Peterborough (when three visitors were cautioned) and later that season against Tranmere when we won 2-1 (again three visitors were cautioned). Before that was the 1-0 defeat against Carlisle five seasons ago in which his performance was probably better than the 8 cautions might imply. His other visit was in the previous season when he officiated in the Leicester home draw in which he sent off Richie Foran. Previously to these, he was in charge of the away draw at Coventry which I believe he refereed reasonably well.
He is an up and coming referee who had a spell in the the "talent group" and gets plenty of Championship appointments. His card count is decidedly average with 75 yellows and 3 reds from 23 games.
Assistants are Michael Webb from Woking and Matthew Buonassisi (previously Matty McLaughlin) from Bedford. Neil Davies from Merseyside (!) will be 4th Official.
