Referee Geoff Eltringham will bring back mixed memories for Dale fans when he takes charge of Dale’s first game back in League One against Peterborough on Saturday.

The County Durham official was the referee for our FA Cup defeat at home to FC United in November 2010 and while it was an extremely embarrassing evening for all Dale fans, the visitors’ winning goal was shrouded in controversy and should have been disallowed.

Television replays showed the ball had been kicked out of Josh Lillis’s grasp, but this was on the blindside of Mr Eltringham, who awarded a goal.

On the other hand, we have won each of our last three games with Geoff in charge.

In September 2011 he refereed a 1-0 midweek defeat of Scunthorpe in which Jason Kennedy scored the game’s only goal.

The final match of the 2012/13 campaign saw Geoff back at Spotland for another 1-0 win, this time over Plymouth.

In that match Mr Eltringham sent-off visiting defender Maxime Blanchard for an early foul on George Donnelly and presided over a tense 90 minutes for the relegation-threatened visitors, the game being settled by Joe Bunney’s debut header.

Geoff was also at Spotland in February for Dale’s 2-1 win over Morecambe which saw football triumph over, shall we say, dubious tactics by the visitors.

His other Dale games since joining the league list in 2009 were both cup ties.

In September of that year Geoff refereed the 2-1 home loss to Bradford in the JPT, while 11 months later he was in the middle for the Carling Cup win at Barnsley.

In total last season he refereed 29 games, showing 90 yellow cards and six red.

Photo: Action Images

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