Dale will meet a new Football League referee on Saturday when Darren England takes charge of their League One fixture at home to Port Vale.

The Barnsley official is in his first season on the referees’ list and has this will be his 14th game of the campaign, three of which have been in League One.

The most recent of those was last Saturday when Darren refereed Fleetwood’s 5-1 home defeat of Swindon, while his other League One fixtures were Shrewsbury v Blackpool and Chesterfield v Scunthorpe.

Mr England has, however, refereed Port Vale this term when he was in the middle for their Johnstone’s Paint Trophy first round tie at home to Carlisle.

Up to the end of last season, Darren was an assistant referee (linesman) at the highest level of the game, with weekly appointments in the Premier League and regular jaunts around Europe to ‘line’ at Champions League matches and international fixtures.

And in May he achieved the pinnacle of an assistant’s domestic career when he was on the line for the FA Cup Final between Arsenal and Aston Villa.

A couple of months later Darren came back down to earth when he refereed Dale’s pre-season friendly at Accrington!

He was back at Stanley for his second appointment as a Football League referee and remarkably showed 10 yellow cards in their 1-0 win over Mansfield.

That might make him seem card-happy, but Dale fans who have witnessed Accrington’s and Mansfield’s antics in recent seasons won’t be surprised by such a high card count!

Including that match, Darren has refereed 13 games in total this season, showing 52 yellow cards and four red.

Photo: Action Images

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