Dale fans will hope the appointment of Darren Drysdale as referee for Friday’s televised game at Bury isn’t a bad omen.

The Lincolnshire official was in charge of the reverse fixture at Spotland in November 2005 when The Shakers won 3-1, with two of their goals coming from the penalty spot and Dale having Jon Boardman sent-off on a miserable afternoon.

On the flip side, we last saw Darren just over two months ago when he was at Spotland for the 2-0 win over Bristol Rovers that made it six points out of six for Dale in Christmas week.

Mr Drysdale, who is in the RAF, is in his ninth season on the referees’ list and on Friday is taking charge of Dale for the 12th time.

We first saw him in October 2004 for a 3-0 home win over Macclesfield, while 12 months later he was in the middle for Dale’s 3-2 victory at Chester in which Matt Gilks was rather fortunate to avoid a red card after his early collision with home striker Greg Blundell.

The full list of Darren’s Dale games is:

30 Oct 2004 Rochdale v Macclesfield Won 3-0

7 Oct 2005 Chester v Rochdale Won 3-2

4 Nov 2006 Rochdale v Bury Lost 1-3

6 Jan 2007 Wycombe v Rochdale Drew 1-1

2 Feb 2008 Rochdale v Peterborough Lost 0-2

13 Sep 2008 Rotherham v Rochdale Drew 2-2

1 Feb 2011 Tranmere v Rochdale Drew 1-1

16 Apr 2011 Rochdale v Brentford Lost 0-1

25 Oct 2011 Rochdale v Chesterfield Drew 1-1

12 Mar 2013 York v Rochdale Drew 0-0

29 Dec 2013 Rochdale v Bristol R Won 2-0

So far this season Darren has refereed 25 games, showing 81 yellow cards and seven red, three of which came in the Southend v Mansfield fixture in November.

Photo: Action Images

Yorkshire_Dale added 22:26 - Mar 7 What a clown......big night in front of the cameras,didn't disappoint. Idiot.
1

Rochdale Polls