Dale’s Johnstone’s Paint Trophy area quarter-final against Morecambe on Tuesday will be refereed by West Yorkshire official David Coote.

The Halifax-based referee is in his sixth season on the league list, but Tuesday will mark only his second appearance at Spotland.

His first was back in February when David was the man in the middle for the 1-0 league defeat of Chesterfield.

However, we have previously met Mr Coote in two away fixtures, although at those times he was based in Nottinghamshire.

In February 2012 David refereed Dale’s rather dire 0-0 draw at Colchester, but ten men months later he took charge of a significantly more exciting game in which John Coleman’s team won 4-2 at Bradford.

Mr Coote spent most of his first season refereeing in League One and League Two, but has since progressed to take charge of more high profile matches, including many in the Championship.

However, these were surpassed in May 2014 when David was appointed as the referee for the League One play-off final at Wembley in which Rotherham came from 2-0 down to defeat Leyton Orient 3-2.

He ended last season with high profile Championship fixtures Millwall v Derby and Norwich v Fulham and was back at that level for his first four appointments of this campaign.

David also took charge of Newcastle v Northampton in the Capital One Cup, while on Saturday he was the referee for the FA Cup tie between Bury and Wigan.

Before that game he had refereed nine games this term, showing 40 yellow cards and two red.

Photo: Action Images

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