Mick
Life President
Competitive head-to-head matches against Plymouth are perfectly balanced. Each team has won 24 times and there have been 23 draws. Another draw would tidy things up nicely and not be the worst result.
We haven't actually won at Home Park this century although we did have a nice run of three consecutive wins there in the 90s.
Will we have a good ref on Good Friday ?
Man in charge will be referee Brendan Malone from Salisbury refereeing his tenth Southend match in his eighth season as a League referee.
He has had loads of injury problems and just started this season 4 weeks ago. His last two Southend appointments were late call-offs - last season's home game against Peterborough and the away match at Barnsley the year before.
So just three League Two games thus far this season, with 12 yellow cards.
The ninth and last Southend match went rather well for us with a 3-0 home win against Coventry in 2015/16. Main talking points were his perfectly justified dismissal of Deegan and, much later in the game, his failure to send off their keeper after awarding us a penalty. Again I thought that decision was reasonable. As well as Deegan's two yellows and their keeper's yellow he also cautioned Bolger.
Before that his most recent match was the 2014/15 home 0-0 draw with Cambridge. One yellow apiece - Timlin for us. Previously, also that season, the 2-0 defeat at Plymouth when he upset Phil Brown in a match which produced 6 yellows for the home team and a yellow and red for Bolger and a yellow for Thompson who replaced Bolger at the back after his very early dismissal.
Before that it was the 2-2 home draw with Barnet in 2012/3. Yellow for Timlin and 4 of theirs.
A year before it was our inevitable win at Hereford. Prior to that it was 2011/12's home match against an inept Port Vale side when a 3-0 victory gave us our first home League win for a couple of months. They had one sent off and a couple of yellows with just Benyon cautioned for us.
He was in charge of the "dead" match, our fourth game against Macclesfield in 2010/11. Previously he was a late replacement for the Gillingham home game also that season (2-2, 5 yellows, 4 theirs, 1 ours) and, more memorably, before that he refereed the abandoned match at Cheltenham and the rather more successful re-arranged fixture. He cautioned Barry Corr for time wasting right at the end.
He will be assisted by the very experienced ex-Premiership lino, Ron Ganfield a member of the Somerset FA Referee Development team. Those who remember him from his Premiership days will appreciate why he is ex-Premiership. The other Assistant is Rob Dabbs from Weymouth, making his Southend debut. Fourth Official, hopefully not making a mess of things, is Mark Pottage from Wincanton.
We haven't actually won at Home Park this century although we did have a nice run of three consecutive wins there in the 90s.
Will we have a good ref on Good Friday ?
Man in charge will be referee Brendan Malone from Salisbury refereeing his tenth Southend match in his eighth season as a League referee.
He has had loads of injury problems and just started this season 4 weeks ago. His last two Southend appointments were late call-offs - last season's home game against Peterborough and the away match at Barnsley the year before.
So just three League Two games thus far this season, with 12 yellow cards.
The ninth and last Southend match went rather well for us with a 3-0 home win against Coventry in 2015/16. Main talking points were his perfectly justified dismissal of Deegan and, much later in the game, his failure to send off their keeper after awarding us a penalty. Again I thought that decision was reasonable. As well as Deegan's two yellows and their keeper's yellow he also cautioned Bolger.
Before that his most recent match was the 2014/15 home 0-0 draw with Cambridge. One yellow apiece - Timlin for us. Previously, also that season, the 2-0 defeat at Plymouth when he upset Phil Brown in a match which produced 6 yellows for the home team and a yellow and red for Bolger and a yellow for Thompson who replaced Bolger at the back after his very early dismissal.
Before that it was the 2-2 home draw with Barnet in 2012/3. Yellow for Timlin and 4 of theirs.
A year before it was our inevitable win at Hereford. Prior to that it was 2011/12's home match against an inept Port Vale side when a 3-0 victory gave us our first home League win for a couple of months. They had one sent off and a couple of yellows with just Benyon cautioned for us.
He was in charge of the "dead" match, our fourth game against Macclesfield in 2010/11. Previously he was a late replacement for the Gillingham home game also that season (2-2, 5 yellows, 4 theirs, 1 ours) and, more memorably, before that he refereed the abandoned match at Cheltenham and the rather more successful re-arranged fixture. He cautioned Barry Corr for time wasting right at the end.
He will be assisted by the very experienced ex-Premiership lino, Ron Ganfield a member of the Somerset FA Referee Development team. Those who remember him from his Premiership days will appreciate why he is ex-Premiership. The other Assistant is Rob Dabbs from Weymouth, making his Southend debut. Fourth Official, hopefully not making a mess of things, is Mark Pottage from Wincanton.
