Mick
The Ref Aficionado.
We have two wins and a draw to show from our three previous competitive matches with Ebbsfleet.
Tomorrow’s referee is Paul Johnson from Surrey. In his early 40s, he is in his fourth season as a National League referee and will be refereeing his sixth Southend match. When he first came to Roots Hall three years ago, he was the Commercial Director for Biotiful Dairy Ltd. For his second visit he was Head of UK Sales (Interim) for Gü Desserts and now he is Head of Commercial for HiPP Organic (UK). He is a qualified Mental Health first aider.
The first of those matches was the 2021/22 match against Bromley. Two early and unnecessary yellows for Atkinson and Husin and a later one for them in a substandard performance – but we did win 2-0.
Back in March 2023 he returned for the Friday night match against Barnet and again he was found wanting. Another weak and inadequate performance, this time a 1-0 defeat and yellows for Hobson and two of theirs.
Last season he had obviously been working on his assertiveness and went mad with his cards early on. This was evident in his third Roots Hall match against Solihull Moors in October when he showed 8 yellows (Kabongolo, Taylor and Scott-Morriss and 5 of theirs). Despite the high card count this was a better performance than his previous two and he can be remembered warmly congratulating four-goal Kanu at the end of our splendid 5-0 victory.
The improvement was maintained for his second Roots Hall match of last season in January when Halifax were defeated 3-0 and this time no cards were shown.
His final previous match, exactly a year ago today and again at Roots Hall, was when he brought the curtain down on last season against Rochdale which saw our first defeat (1-2) in 16 matches. Yellows for Scott-Morriss and two of theirs. A good start but a flat second half when other results were going against us. Can’t recall too much about the referee’s performance in this one, I’m afraid.
This season’s 6 matches have produced 23 yellows and 2 reds, both reds occuring in the Ebbsfleet 0 Solihull 6 match.
Equitably, we have one Assistant from Kent and one from Essex. They are Dan Cook from Braintree and Stephen Brown from Ashford, both regular officials over the years.
A double for Fourth Official, Christopher Darling, a PE teacher and prolific racer, doing marathons and other endurance sports, from Cambridge. As a late replacement, he performed the same role against Ebbsfleet at home on Boxing Day.
Tomorrow’s referee is Paul Johnson from Surrey. In his early 40s, he is in his fourth season as a National League referee and will be refereeing his sixth Southend match. When he first came to Roots Hall three years ago, he was the Commercial Director for Biotiful Dairy Ltd. For his second visit he was Head of UK Sales (Interim) for Gü Desserts and now he is Head of Commercial for HiPP Organic (UK). He is a qualified Mental Health first aider.
The first of those matches was the 2021/22 match against Bromley. Two early and unnecessary yellows for Atkinson and Husin and a later one for them in a substandard performance – but we did win 2-0.
Back in March 2023 he returned for the Friday night match against Barnet and again he was found wanting. Another weak and inadequate performance, this time a 1-0 defeat and yellows for Hobson and two of theirs.
Last season he had obviously been working on his assertiveness and went mad with his cards early on. This was evident in his third Roots Hall match against Solihull Moors in October when he showed 8 yellows (Kabongolo, Taylor and Scott-Morriss and 5 of theirs). Despite the high card count this was a better performance than his previous two and he can be remembered warmly congratulating four-goal Kanu at the end of our splendid 5-0 victory.
The improvement was maintained for his second Roots Hall match of last season in January when Halifax were defeated 3-0 and this time no cards were shown.
His final previous match, exactly a year ago today and again at Roots Hall, was when he brought the curtain down on last season against Rochdale which saw our first defeat (1-2) in 16 matches. Yellows for Scott-Morriss and two of theirs. A good start but a flat second half when other results were going against us. Can’t recall too much about the referee’s performance in this one, I’m afraid.
This season’s 6 matches have produced 23 yellows and 2 reds, both reds occuring in the Ebbsfleet 0 Solihull 6 match.
Equitably, we have one Assistant from Kent and one from Essex. They are Dan Cook from Braintree and Stephen Brown from Ashford, both regular officials over the years.
A double for Fourth Official, Christopher Darling, a PE teacher and prolific racer, doing marathons and other endurance sports, from Cambridge. As a late replacement, he performed the same role against Ebbsfleet at home on Boxing Day.
to you and all other Shrimpers 
