Mick
Life President
Tonight's match official is the experienced and normally very decent Mick Russell from St Albans.
A steady official in his 9th season (although he missed most of last season with an injury), this will be his 12th Southend match and his 7th at Roots Hall.
His first home Southend match was also Freddie Eastwood's first match and we know what happened there! His next home game was the early season victory over Stoke in 2006/7. His more recent home matches were the 3-3 derby match with Colchester when he cautioned 5 of theirs and none of ours and the somewhat lively 3-2 victory over a fairly unpleasant Hartlepool side involving two penalties and the dismissal of their keeper.
He most recent Southend matches were at home to Morecambe the season before last, where some might say he wasn't great and failed to dismiss a Morecambe player for an off the ball incident involving Mohsni and, later in the same season, when he (and we) coasted through a cardless game against Macclesfield (Mohsni got a couple).
His first two away matches were both on the south coast; the 1-1 draw at Bournemouth when Sodje was injured and then the 3-2 defeat at Brighton in 2007/8.
Then comes the match when he apparently blotted his copybook in a match I did not see at Swindon in 2009/10, where, by all accounts, he had a bit of a nightmare. However he was subsequently back to his best in a game I did see at Norwich later that season when it was certainly not his fault we failed to hold on to one point when for much of the game we looked like taking all three.
His final away game was last season's win at Burton where he had another good match, although he did caution Grant and Phillips.
A referee who usually officiates with a smile on his face, he looks to allow play to continue where possible and always has a well below average card count. He has done 22 matches already this season (including 8 Championship games) and, despite having 6 yellows and a red in Saturday's slightly fractious match between bitter rivals Palace and Brighton, these matches have produced just 48 yellows and 2 reds.
Assistants are Geofrey Russell (no relation) from Rushden and Ian Cooper from Rochester with one-time Roots Hall paying customer, Rob Whitton from Bocking in Essex on 4th Official duties.
A steady official in his 9th season (although he missed most of last season with an injury), this will be his 12th Southend match and his 7th at Roots Hall.
His first home Southend match was also Freddie Eastwood's first match and we know what happened there! His next home game was the early season victory over Stoke in 2006/7. His more recent home matches were the 3-3 derby match with Colchester when he cautioned 5 of theirs and none of ours and the somewhat lively 3-2 victory over a fairly unpleasant Hartlepool side involving two penalties and the dismissal of their keeper.
He most recent Southend matches were at home to Morecambe the season before last, where some might say he wasn't great and failed to dismiss a Morecambe player for an off the ball incident involving Mohsni and, later in the same season, when he (and we) coasted through a cardless game against Macclesfield (Mohsni got a couple).
His first two away matches were both on the south coast; the 1-1 draw at Bournemouth when Sodje was injured and then the 3-2 defeat at Brighton in 2007/8.
Then comes the match when he apparently blotted his copybook in a match I did not see at Swindon in 2009/10, where, by all accounts, he had a bit of a nightmare. However he was subsequently back to his best in a game I did see at Norwich later that season when it was certainly not his fault we failed to hold on to one point when for much of the game we looked like taking all three.
His final away game was last season's win at Burton where he had another good match, although he did caution Grant and Phillips.
A referee who usually officiates with a smile on his face, he looks to allow play to continue where possible and always has a well below average card count. He has done 22 matches already this season (including 8 Championship games) and, despite having 6 yellows and a red in Saturday's slightly fractious match between bitter rivals Palace and Brighton, these matches have produced just 48 yellows and 2 reds.
Assistants are Geofrey Russell (no relation) from Rushden and Ian Cooper from Rochester with one-time Roots Hall paying customer, Rob Whitton from Bocking in Essex on 4th Official duties.
