Mick
The Ref Aficionado.
Moving on to hopefully our penultimate refwatch of the season as we head back to Forest Green, having drawn 2-2 there back in March. Coincidentally, the home match against them was also 2-2 so, combined with the two covid era matches which were both away wins, there has yet to be a home win in any matches against them.
Tomorrow's referee is David Rock from Hertford, refereeing in his sixth season as a Football League referee having spent 5 years at the top non-league level before finally getting the nod at the start of the 2019/20 season. Aged 40, he has for many years worked in a teaching and learning organisation who specialise in supporting primary schools with their delivery of physical education through curriculum PE support and Teacher Development. He is also a Director of a company providing an Interactive Primary Physical Education Resource. He is a qualified coach in all manner of sports.
No happy memories of Mr Rock for Blues fans - his first Southend match was the miserable Cup performance (ours not his) at Dover. There were 5 yellows in this one, ours going to Dieng, Elvis and McLaughlin. His second Southend match was the low-key home tie against West Ham U21s in the Football League Trophy which we also lost. The only 2 yellows went to them in a 3-1 defeat.
Slightly more recently he took charge of the 0-0 draw against Walsall towards the end of 2020/21. Another poor performance (again us, not him) but loads of cards – 5 yellows for them, a red for Sam Hart (who figured regularly in Port Vale’s promotion winning side this season) and yellows for White and Macca.
Prior to those game I had seen him referee in non-league on many occasions and he had usually been good favouring a non-intervention approach when the players had allowed that. He has clearly had to modify that approach in the Football League.
This season his 29 matches have seen 122 yellows and 5 reds.
Assisting are Sam Wesson from Leicester, last seen, or more probably not seen, in the fog at Boston and, with his first Southend match, Kieran Forrest, a Referee Development Officer from Birmingham.
Fourth Official is Sam Mulhall, previously from Northwich but he now appears to work for the FA in London as a Learning and Development Officer and also is the Anti-Doping Co-ordinator. He is the holder of a Postgraduate Certificate in Sports Coaching from Worcester University. He also holds a UEFA Certificate in Football Management from the University of Lausanne. Just as with the Rochdale play-off, the Fourth Official is the man who refereed the corresponding League fixture with him having taking charge of that 2-2 draw.
Tomorrow's referee is David Rock from Hertford, refereeing in his sixth season as a Football League referee having spent 5 years at the top non-league level before finally getting the nod at the start of the 2019/20 season. Aged 40, he has for many years worked in a teaching and learning organisation who specialise in supporting primary schools with their delivery of physical education through curriculum PE support and Teacher Development. He is also a Director of a company providing an Interactive Primary Physical Education Resource. He is a qualified coach in all manner of sports.
No happy memories of Mr Rock for Blues fans - his first Southend match was the miserable Cup performance (ours not his) at Dover. There were 5 yellows in this one, ours going to Dieng, Elvis and McLaughlin. His second Southend match was the low-key home tie against West Ham U21s in the Football League Trophy which we also lost. The only 2 yellows went to them in a 3-1 defeat.
Slightly more recently he took charge of the 0-0 draw against Walsall towards the end of 2020/21. Another poor performance (again us, not him) but loads of cards – 5 yellows for them, a red for Sam Hart (who figured regularly in Port Vale’s promotion winning side this season) and yellows for White and Macca.
Prior to those game I had seen him referee in non-league on many occasions and he had usually been good favouring a non-intervention approach when the players had allowed that. He has clearly had to modify that approach in the Football League.
This season his 29 matches have seen 122 yellows and 5 reds.
Assisting are Sam Wesson from Leicester, last seen, or more probably not seen, in the fog at Boston and, with his first Southend match, Kieran Forrest, a Referee Development Officer from Birmingham.
Fourth Official is Sam Mulhall, previously from Northwich but he now appears to work for the FA in London as a Learning and Development Officer and also is the Anti-Doping Co-ordinator. He is the holder of a Postgraduate Certificate in Sports Coaching from Worcester University. He also holds a UEFA Certificate in Football Management from the University of Lausanne. Just as with the Rochdale play-off, the Fourth Official is the man who refereed the corresponding League fixture with him having taking charge of that 2-2 draw.
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