Wiltshire-based referee Brendan Malone is the man in charge of Dale’s trip to Oxford on Saturday.

We last saw Brendan in August 2013 when he was in charge of our 1-0 loss at Plymouth, while 11 months earlier he refereed the controversial 2-1 win at AFC Wimbledon when Dale were helped by the first half sending-off of The Dons’ Jack Midson for an altercation with Bobby Grant.

That in turn led to various other altercations on the nearby away terrace!

We had previously seen Mr Malone at Brentford in March 2012 when Dale gave a particularly abject display in losing 2-0.

Mr Malone is in his seventh season on the league list and has spent the majority of this time officiating in League One and League Two.

So far this term he has refereed seven matches, showing 25 yellow cards and one red.

His most recent game was Port Vale v Scunthorpe last weekend.

Photo: Action Images

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