Tony Harrington is the man in charge of Saturday’s local derby at home to Oldham.

Like our recent derbies against Bolton and Bury, the man in the middle is a member of the Select Group 2 list of referees, who mainly officiate in the Championship and at other high profile EFL fixtures.

The Hartlepool-based whistler will always have fond memories of the Crown Oil Arena 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 the Crown Oil Arena in February 2015 when we again lost 2-1, this time to Sheffield United.

And to continue a worrying, yet coincidental trend, Mr Harrington was at the Crown Oil Arena last October for Dale’s 3-1 defeat by Bradford.

However, Tony’s most recent Dale match ended with fans in a much happier mood as he was in the middle for the 3-0 home win over Bury in March.

In total this term, Tony has refereed 10 games, showing 45 yellow cards and one red.

His most recent appointment was Derby v Leeds a fortnight ago, while Mr Harrington also refereed the televised game between Peterborough and Bury.

Photo: Action Images

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