The Referee for Saturdays match at Sixfields is Mark Haywood from West Yorkshire.
This is Mr Haywoods 5th season on The Football Leagues books but strangely he has never refereed a Southend match.
So without knowing to much about Mr Haywood, what can I write. Well he commenced his refereeing career in West Yorkshire in 1993 and went through the ranks of the West Yorkshire and Northern Premier Leagues.
He reached the National List of assistant referees in 2002. In 2006 he was promoted to the National List of referees.
He doesn't appear to be a card happy ref. The most he's dished out over the last four seasons is 4 yellows in one game. He was though a bit card happy when he first came on the scene.....during the 2006/07 season his 21 games in charge saw him dish out 64 yellows but just 3 reds.
Recently though, he's calmed down.
This season he's averaging 2 yellow cards per game.
