Mick
The Ref Aficionado.
Our League record against Yeovil couldn’t be more evenly balanced with seven wins apiece and a couple of draws. We have scored 18 goals in those matches; they have scored 18 goals. That record was levelled up by us beating them twice the season before last – the last time we met in the league. We won the match at Roots Hall when Jake Hyde interrupted his spells of injury to score the only goal. Yeovil played the majority of the match with 10 men. Then later that season, in a televised away match, again Jake Hyde scored and we even managed to get Rhys Murphy onto the pitch and scoring. Yeovil played the latter part of the match with 10 men.
Woman in charge on Saturday is 32-year-old Abigail Byrne from Mildenhall, a FIFA Woman Referee, who is one of our top female officials having done the Women’s Cup Final at Wembley and officiated at all the top grounds. She also refereed the 2022/23 Soccer Aid at Old Trafford – not proper football but a good fundraiser for many worthy causes. This will be her second Southend match having refereed our 2-1 win at Maidenhead last season. A strong performance and yellow cards for Bridge and three of theirs. Her only other Southend involvement to date was refereeing our FA Youth Cup defeat at Ipswich during the behind closed doors era. She was also scheduled to be Fourth Official in the ill-fated away match against Wealdstone last season.
She is part of the Elite Referee Development Plan and therefore outside of the normal promotion levels and can be allocated games as the coaches see fit. In men’s football, she has done just two National League matches so far this season and two Football League Trophy matches, the most recent being a couple of days ago at Peterborough. Those four matches have produced 19 yellow cards and no reds. She has recently returned from a couple of weeks in the Dominican Republic refereeing several matches in the U17 Women’s World Cup and she has refereed all the top women’s teams in the UK and in European competitions.
Assistants are Laurentiu Hantea, a service engineer from Biggleswade, and Graham Swanton from Sawbridgeworth, a Head of Quality Assurance for a housing company. Standing by as Fourth Official will be Tommy Breen, from London who works in recruitment.
Woman in charge on Saturday is 32-year-old Abigail Byrne from Mildenhall, a FIFA Woman Referee, who is one of our top female officials having done the Women’s Cup Final at Wembley and officiated at all the top grounds. She also refereed the 2022/23 Soccer Aid at Old Trafford – not proper football but a good fundraiser for many worthy causes. This will be her second Southend match having refereed our 2-1 win at Maidenhead last season. A strong performance and yellow cards for Bridge and three of theirs. Her only other Southend involvement to date was refereeing our FA Youth Cup defeat at Ipswich during the behind closed doors era. She was also scheduled to be Fourth Official in the ill-fated away match against Wealdstone last season.
She is part of the Elite Referee Development Plan and therefore outside of the normal promotion levels and can be allocated games as the coaches see fit. In men’s football, she has done just two National League matches so far this season and two Football League Trophy matches, the most recent being a couple of days ago at Peterborough. Those four matches have produced 19 yellow cards and no reds. She has recently returned from a couple of weeks in the Dominican Republic refereeing several matches in the U17 Women’s World Cup and she has refereed all the top women’s teams in the UK and in European competitions.
Assistants are Laurentiu Hantea, a service engineer from Biggleswade, and Graham Swanton from Sawbridgeworth, a Head of Quality Assurance for a housing company. Standing by as Fourth Official will be Tommy Breen, from London who works in recruitment.
