Tony Harrington is the man in charge of our third meeting of the season with Bury on Saturday.

The Hartlepool-based whistler will always have fond memories of Spotland as he kicked-off his Football League career there when Dale drew 0-0 with Northampton on the opening day of the 2012/13 campaign.

His next visit proved more eventful as Mr Harrington sent-off both Olly Lancashire and Jack O’Connell in the 4-0 loss to Scunthorpe in November 2013.

Despite what was thought at the time, it was hard to realistically argue against either decision.

Ironically, Tony was also the referee when we visited Scunthorpe on Boxing Day 2014, but his performance wasn’t even commented on as Dale went down to a 2-1 defeat.

He was also the man in the middle at Spotland last February when we again lost 2-1, but this time to Sheffield United.

And to continue a worrying, yet coincidental trend, Mr Harrington was most recently at Spotland in October for Dale’s 3-1 defeat by Bradford.

However, his most recent Bury game ended in defeat for The Shakers when they were beaten 2-1 at home by Scunthorpe in November.

The PE teacher has picked up appointments across all three divisions in his four seasons on the league list, with his most recent game being Leeds v Bolton last Saturday

In total this term, Tony has refereed 23 games, showing 60 yellow cards and one red.

Photo: Action Images

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