Gary Sutton has refereed 12 previous Dale games, yet we have only won one of them!

However, that was arguably the most important of the lot as it came eight months ago when he awarded Dale the decisive penalty which Peter Vincenti converted to overcome former European Champions (twice) Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup third round.

The Lincolnshire official had taken charge of 11 Dale games before then, producing two draws and nine defeats!

The most recent of those losses came early last season when Mr Sutton was in the middle for the 1-0 defeat at Sheffield United.

In 2013/14 he refereed the 1-0 Capital One Cup defeat at Doncaster, while in August 2012 Gary was in charge in the same competition when Dale lost 3-4 at home to Saturday’s opponents, a game in which he sent-off Barnsley’s goalkeeper and awarded Dale two penalties!

Eight weeks later Gary pointed to the spot THREE times at Plymouth, but while Argyle converted their two penalties, Bobby Grant missed for Dale in a 3-1 loss.

Mr Sutton’s full record at Dale games is:

Aug 05 Cheltenham (h), D 1-1

Dec 05 Wrexham (a), L 1-2

Nov 06 Barnet (a), L 2-3

Aug 09 Rotherham (a), L 1-2

Apr 10 Torquay (a), L 0-5

Feb 11 Walsall (a), D 0-0

Nov 11 Brentford (h), L 1-2

Aug 12 Barnsley (h, LC), L 3-4

Oct 12 Plymouth (a), L 1-3

Aug 13 Doncaster (a, LC), L 0-1

Sep 14 Sheffield U (a), L 0-1

Jan 15 Nottingham F (h, FAC), W 1-0

Up to midweek, Gary had refereed two games this season, showing seven yellow cards and no red.

Photo: Action Images

Rochdale Polls