Mark Brown is the man in the middle for Dale’s home game against Bristol Rovers on Saturday.

This is the first time Dale have seen the Hull-based official since last March when he was in charge of our 1-0 Easter Monday defeat at Wigan.

Mark’s most recent visit to the Crown Oil Arena was in December 2014 when he refereed the 4-1 FA Cup replay defeat of Aldershot.

Earlier that season Mark had overseen the Capital One Cup first round tie against Preston, which Dale lost 2-0, while in July 2014 he was the man in the middle for the home friendly versus Middlesbrough.

In our 2013/14 promotion season, Mr Brown took charge of two Dale victories, once at Spotland and once on the road.

In September he was the referee at Accrington for a game which Dale won 2-1 despite having George Donnelly sent-off shortly before half-time.

Four months later Mark refereed the 3-0 home defeat of Plymouth which was memorable for two great goals by Ian Henderson and Michael Rose, while Argyle finished the game with ten men after Andres Gurrieri had been dismissed.

Currently in his seventh season as a league referee, this will be Mark’s 12th game involving Dale. The summary of his previous ten appointments is:

Nov 10 Rochdale v Swindon D 3-3

Mar 11 Hartlepool v Rochdale W 2-0

Aug 11 Rochdale v Carlisle D 0-0

Apr 12 Rochdale v MK Dons L 1-2

Oct 12 Rochdale v Fleetwood D 0-0

Sep 13 Accrington v Rochdale W 2-1

Jan 14 Rochdale v Plymouth W 3-0

Jul 14 Rochdale v Middlesbrough (F) L 1-3

Aug 14 Rochdale v Preston (COC) L 0-2

Dec 14 Rochdale v Aldershot (FAC) W 4-1

Mar 16 Wigan v Rochdale L 0-1

So far this season Mr Brown has taken charge of only three games, as he was out injured until the turn of the year.

Photo: Action Images

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