Ref Watch ...... Good Friday ..... Good ref ?

[Mick]

The man in charge against the brawlers from Bradford is Eddie Ilderton from Tyne and Wear. He is in his 9th season as a League referee but really it's his 8th as he missed all of one season through injury. In his late thirties, he works in the building industry.

He has refereed Southend three times before, most recently at Leeds two seasons ago (2 yellows apiece). Before that the away defeat at Huddersfield in the same season (no cautions). Before that he had not refereed a Southend match for over 5 years when co-incidentally he officiated in our 1-0 defeat at Huddersfield in 2003/4 when he cautioned Drewe.

So all defeats against Yorkshire teams !

His only other Southend match was the year before when we lost 2-0 away at York. (Good heavens, was it only 7 years ago we were playing and losing to teams like York? ....... we might be playing them again next year).

He gets a good number of Championship games and has a reputation of being one of the better Football League referees. His 33 games this season have produced a well below average 71 yellows and 4 reds.

He recently refereed Leeds' 7-3 home defeat by Nottingham Forest - a repeat of that would be good!

He will be assisted by Matt Bristow from Manchester and Iain Siddall from Bolton with Dan Meeson from Stafford as 4th Official.

 

[OldBlueLady]

Not a ref I know really, but as you say, a repeat of the Leeds/Forest scoreline would be good!

 

[BLUEBLOOD]

So all defeats against Yorkshire teams !

Whilst i can't quite go as far as blaming him totally for extending that run i will say he didn't do a great deal to change it

 

[Mick]

Whilst i can't quite go as far as blaming him totally for extending that run i will say he didn't do a great deal to change it

The first red card was defensible in Law, but, for me, harsh. I think it's a ludicrous Law to have to show a red card when the "obvious goalscoring opportunity" that's been denied was not as good an opportunity as the resulting penalty. I believe there are moves afoot to change this and if he does the same thing at Bradford next season for the third year running it will probably be a yellow !

The second red card was not caught on camera but in any case was the Assistant Referee's doing.

Red cards apart, how did he do ?

 

[BLUEBLOOD]

Red cards apart, how did he do ?

Well biased as i am it appeared to me they got all the borderline decisions, little nudges and shirt pulls by them unpunished whereas ours were .. assisted greatly by the flag wavers who only got involved to give home decisions

 

[sufc_tom]

Bilel also got thrown to the floor by been grabbed round the neck.

Also the remembered only 3 mins of extra time to be played. 6 subs, 2 sending offs, penalty and a lengthy delay for Barkers injury. Don't know where he got 3 minutes from!

 

[Thorpe Groyney]

I will say the second red was spot-on. Benyon kicked out at a Bradford player off the ball. I just happened to see it because I was doing my normal thing which is just chatting and looking in the general direction of the pitch but not necessarily the play.