Chris Sarginson will make only his third visit to Spotland as a referee when he takes charge of Saturday’s game against Scunthorpe.

The Staffordshire official last made the trip up the M6 in December 2011 for the 0-0 draw with Yeovil, which proved to be Steve Eyre’s last game as Dale manager.

He was also at Spotland in February 2010 for the 3-1 midweek defeat to Bradford which put a temporary halt to our promotion charge.

We have met Chris on the road on several other occasions and Saturday will be his eighth Dale appointment.

The most recent of those was in November 2013 at Chesterfield in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy, where Dale were on the wrong end of a 3-0 scoreline.

In February 2013 Mr Sarginson refereed a dire 0-0 draw at Barnet, while in August 2009 he was in the middle at Hillsborough when Dale lost 3-0 to Sheffield Wednesday in the Carling Cup.

We first saw Chris for a 1-1 draw at Lincoln in October 2008 when he sent then-City manager Peter Jackson to the stand for over-zealous protests.

Later in the season at Macclesfield, he awarded Dale a dubious penalty from which Tom Kennedy scored to win the game, leading to some fearful earache from Keith Alexander as Chris left the field at half-time.

This season Chris has refereed 25 games, showing 73 yellow cards and three red. His most recent fixture was the Championship encounter between Bournemouth and Blackpool last Saturday.

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