Ref Watch ........ Gillingham home

[Mick]

Our first referee of 2013 will be Andy Woolmer from Northampton. He is a very short referee with even shorter hair and, as shorter officials sometimes do, he has the capacity to be slightly officious or worse. He is in his 9th year as a League referee and has refereed Southend on very many occasions. The two most recent were last season; firstly our comfortable win at Barnet (7 yellows and one of theirs sent off) and most recently the 1-0 home win against Crewe when Mohsni scored the only goal. Kalala and a couple of theirs were cautioned. Before that Wycombe at home the year before last when he wasn't too bad. Prior to that it was the same season when we lost 0-2 to Crewe. He wasn't great; nor were we.

His first visit to Roots Hall however is somewhat more memorable as it was the Boston match when he sent off Darryl and heralded the appearance of Tes the Cat (...... his name is Tes the Cat, he plays for Montserrat).

His cards this season are low for him and the right side of average with 47 yellows and 3 reds from 18 games.

Assisting will be regular visitor Adrian Sannerude from Lowestoft and joining him for his trip down the A12 will be Nick Cooper a first year lino from Ipswich. The very experienced (i.e. old) Steve Rubery from Ilford is 4th Official.

 

[Magnum PI]

3 minutes of injury time was a shambolic decision. I understand that there was no real injuries in the 2nd half but 6 subs + gratuitous timewasting = more than 3 minutes.

 

[bazzashrimper]

Other than timekeeping I thought he handled the game well. Lack of help from the east stand Lino who didn't know he was in charge of offside thou

 

[eastling]

Other than timekeeping I thought he handled the game well. Lack of help from the east stand Lino who didn't know he was in charge of offside thou

I've not seen a decent east stand lino all season but he was up there in the pointless stakes. In first half one of their players received the ball when clearly offside but no flag. Ref looked over looking for guidance but none given. Perhaps it was the sun?

 

[fbm]

3 minutes of injury time was a shambolic decision. I understand that there was no real injuries in the 2nd half but 6 subs + gratuitous timewasting = more than 3 minutes.

I thought that too but one of the subs was made at half time and two were made together. I therefore assume that means a minimum of two minutes added time for the subs, and therefore he only added a minute on for time wasting. Pretty rubbish when you think he booked one of them for time wasting and that took 30 seconds.

Also, why blow for full time when the ball is heading towards the box? Either let the attacking team have a go or the defending team the chance to clear it. Odd decision.

 

[OldBlueLady]

Also, why blow for full time when the ball is heading towards the box? Either let the attacking team have a go or the defending team the chance to clear it. Odd decision.

Yes, agreed.

I thought he was a typically officious short bloke in the middle - blowing his whistle and strutting about to make up for his loss of inches. Outrageous decision to penalise Prosser by giving a free kick for a perfectly good challenge when he'd let one go on Timlin a few minutes earlier which was easily worse! Also the decision not to penalise the Gills player who clumped Laird in the mouth with an elbow but gave a foul to them for the next (and innocuous) challenge.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

Yes, agreed.

I thought he was a typically officious short bloke in the middle - blowing his whistle and strutting about to make up for his loss of inches. Outrageous decision to penalise Prosser by giving a free kick for a perfectly good challenge when he'd let one go on Timlin a few minutes earlier which was easily worse! Also the decision not to penalise the Gills player who clumped Laird in the mouth with an elbow but gave a foul to them for the next (and innocuous) challenge.

We had advantage.

 

[OldBlueLady]

We had advantage.

I don't care, it was a bad enough foul to call it at the time.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

I don't care, it was a bad enough foul to call it at the time.

Eh? A free-kick would have penalised us, not Gillingham.

 

[OldBlueLady]

Eh? A free-kick would have penalised us, not Gillingham.

Don't see that, it would have been a free kick in a very dangerous area.

 

[Gremlin]

Also, why blow for full time when the ball is heading towards the box? Either let the attacking team have a go or the defending team the chance to clear it. Odd decision.

Is it really odd or was the time just up?

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

Don't see that, it would have been a free kick in a very dangerous area.

Instead it was advantage to us in a very dangerous area of the pitch with Gillingham scrambling at the back.

Letting them reorganise and call back their forwards to defend is to their advantage.

 

[Firestorm]

Instead it was advantage to us in a very dangerous area of the pitch with Gillingham scrambling at the back.

Letting them reorganise and call back their forwards to defend is to their advantage.

I am not sure the ref gave the advantage though, I don't recall it being signalled , That said since the introduction of the interpretation which recommends giving a bit of time to see if there is an advantage , I don't recall seeing the "old style" advantage signal being given.
As the player was not even spoken to I assumed the ref missed it as I would have thought the incident merited at least a word once play had stopped

 

[Lord Football]

This 30 seconds a sub thing, is just an urban myth.

Thought the East lino was poor, very poor. Missed the ball going out three times (we got advantage of sorts for two of them). Called an offside against Gills, which wasn't. Wasn't up with play properly. Missed lots of in his area of control, including the elbow on Laird. I could have done a better job.

Ref. Never liked him. Don't like his style. He wasn't his usual traffic warden type, but still got on my nerves.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

This 30 seconds a sub thing, is just an urban myth.

Thought the East lino was poor, very poor. Missed the ball going out three times (we got advantage of sorts for two of them). Called an offside against Gills, which wasn't. Wasn't up with play properly. Missed lots of in his area of control, including the elbow on Laird. I could have done a better job.

Ref. Never liked him. Don't like his style. He wasn't his usual traffic warden type, but still got on my nerves.

I liked the East lino, he gave almost everything to us regardless of whether it was right. More like him please!

Bit harsh to blame him for missing the elbow on Laird as he was running the (North)East line and that took place in the South-West bit.

 

[A Century United]

This 30 seconds a sub thing, is just an urban myth.

Thought the East lino was poor, very poor. Missed the ball going out three times (we got advantage of sorts for two of them). Called an offside against Gills, which wasn't. Wasn't up with play properly. Missed lots of in his area of control, including the elbow on Laird. I could have done a better job.

Ref. Never liked him. Don't like his style. He wasn't his usual traffic warden type, but still got on my nerves.

Always interesting to get a Ref's eye view, but how can you be so sure the whole of the ball was over the whole of the line from where you sit, when he had the advantage of a no-parallax view? It's almost impossible to judge from the seats.

 

[dannypav]

Is it really odd or was the time just up?

Exactly.
I take the point of possibly too little added time , but the ref doesn't have any obligation to let an attack finish at all.
If time is up , the game is over

 

[Mick]

Exactly.
I take the point of possibly too little added time , but the ref doesn't have any obligation to let an attack finish at all.
If time is up , the game is over

Well yes ... and no.

The amount of added time is not an exact science. It is not measured in seconds. The referee does not start and stop a stopwatch to come up with the precise period of added time. Even the number shown is rounded down to the nearest whole minute.

This being the case it has become standard practice to not blow until the ball is out of the danger area, but a referee would not necessarily wait for an attack developing from midfield to conclude.