Mick
Life President
In all the matches we've played at Portsmouth since 1920, the only ones we've won have been when we had a player sent off (i.e. the last two).
Well is Saturday's referee likely to oblige ?
The man in charge will be Carl Boyeson from Hull, an experienced official in his 16th season who will be officiating his 13th Southend match. A central heating technician in his late forties, he is one of the most experienced referees on the Football League List.
So far in his matches we have won 4, lost 5 and drawn the other 3.
The most recent went rather well. It was the visit to Fleetwood a couple of months ago. He sent off a home player after about half an hour and we had a comfortable 4-2 away win. The only other card of the match was a yellow for them.
Before that his last Southend match was a little over a year ago for the 0-0 draw at Walsall. Three yellows apiece, ours going to Timlin, Ferdinand and Cox.
The one before that was 2014/15 at Shrewsbury. A 1-1 draw with Tyrone Barnett and Jack Payne getting a goal apiece. Again, the yellow cards were even, this time a 1-1 draw with Coker getting ours.
Before that was a poor performance, not by him especially, but by us. It was the 2-1 defeat at Northampton in 2013/14 with yellows for Timlin and Phillips and one of theirs. Prior to that, his last two Southend matches both finished up 3-0. More recently the 3-0 victory in 2009/10 against a woeful Walsall side. No complaints with an early dismissal and two yellows, all to the visitors. Before that was the 3-0 defeat in the early kick-off match at Leicester in 2008/9 (the match in which Liam Feeney, now on loan at Cardiff, played all 10 minutes of his Southend career), where he didn't caution anyone and previously a late 4-3 defeat at Hartlepool the previous season (two yellows each - Hunt and Macca). Earlier matches included another win over Walsall, another defeat at Leicester (caution for Barrett), a rare home match in 2005/6 when we lost to Port Vale (again a draw on cautions 1-1 Mark Bentley and Billy Paynter) but nothing especially noteworthy other than a good win at Rochdale in 2002/3 with three cautions each - Jones, J. Smith and Beard for us.
I've always thought him to be a decent, steady journeyman of a referee, but he was never likely to be selected for the full-time Select Group 2. Was one of the .. er bulkier referees when he started out. Not so now and clearly coping with the rigours of the fitness tests.
Last season's card count was unusually high - an above-average 139 yellows and 10 reds from 36 games. This followed twelve seasons of well below average card showing.
This season his 15 matches have seen a below average 40 yellows and a high 6 reds.
He has rarely officiated at Portsmouth during his long refereeing career (hardly surprising given it's a 550 mile round trip) but when he has, they've won !
Assistants are Simon Knapp from Gloucester and John Farries from Oxford. Fourth Official is Justin Amey from Bournemouth, a non-league referee who once sent off a Bashley player in the 3rd second of a match !!
For those who really can't wait, next Tuesday's referee at MK Dons is scheduled to be Tim Robinson. More about him when we've got this one out of the way.
Well is Saturday's referee likely to oblige ?
The man in charge will be Carl Boyeson from Hull, an experienced official in his 16th season who will be officiating his 13th Southend match. A central heating technician in his late forties, he is one of the most experienced referees on the Football League List.
So far in his matches we have won 4, lost 5 and drawn the other 3.
The most recent went rather well. It was the visit to Fleetwood a couple of months ago. He sent off a home player after about half an hour and we had a comfortable 4-2 away win. The only other card of the match was a yellow for them.
Before that his last Southend match was a little over a year ago for the 0-0 draw at Walsall. Three yellows apiece, ours going to Timlin, Ferdinand and Cox.
The one before that was 2014/15 at Shrewsbury. A 1-1 draw with Tyrone Barnett and Jack Payne getting a goal apiece. Again, the yellow cards were even, this time a 1-1 draw with Coker getting ours.
Before that was a poor performance, not by him especially, but by us. It was the 2-1 defeat at Northampton in 2013/14 with yellows for Timlin and Phillips and one of theirs. Prior to that, his last two Southend matches both finished up 3-0. More recently the 3-0 victory in 2009/10 against a woeful Walsall side. No complaints with an early dismissal and two yellows, all to the visitors. Before that was the 3-0 defeat in the early kick-off match at Leicester in 2008/9 (the match in which Liam Feeney, now on loan at Cardiff, played all 10 minutes of his Southend career), where he didn't caution anyone and previously a late 4-3 defeat at Hartlepool the previous season (two yellows each - Hunt and Macca). Earlier matches included another win over Walsall, another defeat at Leicester (caution for Barrett), a rare home match in 2005/6 when we lost to Port Vale (again a draw on cautions 1-1 Mark Bentley and Billy Paynter) but nothing especially noteworthy other than a good win at Rochdale in 2002/3 with three cautions each - Jones, J. Smith and Beard for us.
I've always thought him to be a decent, steady journeyman of a referee, but he was never likely to be selected for the full-time Select Group 2. Was one of the .. er bulkier referees when he started out. Not so now and clearly coping with the rigours of the fitness tests.
Last season's card count was unusually high - an above-average 139 yellows and 10 reds from 36 games. This followed twelve seasons of well below average card showing.
This season his 15 matches have seen a below average 40 yellows and a high 6 reds.
He has rarely officiated at Portsmouth during his long refereeing career (hardly surprising given it's a 550 mile round trip) but when he has, they've won !
Assistants are Simon Knapp from Gloucester and John Farries from Oxford. Fourth Official is Justin Amey from Bournemouth, a non-league referee who once sent off a Bashley player in the 3rd second of a match !!
For those who really can't wait, next Tuesday's referee at MK Dons is scheduled to be Tim Robinson. More about him when we've got this one out of the way.
