Mick
Life President
The man in charge tomorrow is Lee Collins from Surrey. He has been fast tracked through the system and rose to the level of League referee remarkably quickly, this being his fourth season.
He started his career off with 6 red cards in his first 11 matches, then calmed down a lot.
He has now settled at a below average card rate although his last Southend match was the 0-0 home draw with Bury last March when he sent off Barry Corr and cautioned Egan and Leonard (and two of theirs).
Before that it was our wretched performance at Newport last season where he was comfortably more competent than the players. Atkinson's yellow was the only card of the match.
His previous home match was the League Cup defeat by Yeovil. A yellow for Prosser and four of theirs.
And before that, he killed the game for Dagenham with a unjustifiable red card after 8 minutes (which was subsequently rescinded). A further yellow for Phillips and a comfortable 3-1 win thanks to two goals from Britt.
He has refereed Southend on two other previous occasions. More recently, Oxford away at the end of the 2011/12 season (one caution for us, two for them) and before that at, co-incidentally, Dagenham in the 3-2 League win when he cautioned Mohsni and again two of theirs. He didn't attract much comment, adverse or otherwise.
Assistants will be Matt Foley and Neil Davies both from London. Chris Pollard, a promising non-league referee from Stowmarket, is 4th Official.
He started his career off with 6 red cards in his first 11 matches, then calmed down a lot.
He has now settled at a below average card rate although his last Southend match was the 0-0 home draw with Bury last March when he sent off Barry Corr and cautioned Egan and Leonard (and two of theirs).
Before that it was our wretched performance at Newport last season where he was comfortably more competent than the players. Atkinson's yellow was the only card of the match.
His previous home match was the League Cup defeat by Yeovil. A yellow for Prosser and four of theirs.
And before that, he killed the game for Dagenham with a unjustifiable red card after 8 minutes (which was subsequently rescinded). A further yellow for Phillips and a comfortable 3-1 win thanks to two goals from Britt.
He has refereed Southend on two other previous occasions. More recently, Oxford away at the end of the 2011/12 season (one caution for us, two for them) and before that at, co-incidentally, Dagenham in the 3-2 League win when he cautioned Mohsni and again two of theirs. He didn't attract much comment, adverse or otherwise.
Assistants will be Matt Foley and Neil Davies both from London. Chris Pollard, a promising non-league referee from Stowmarket, is 4th Official.
