Darren Handley is the referee for Dale’s home game against Port Vale on Tuesday.

The Bolton official is in his third season on the referees’ list and this is his fourth match at the Crown Oil Arena as the man in the middle, all of which have come in the last year.

The first of those four games was last February when Darren took charge of the 1-0 midweek win over Fleetwood, while in July he refereed Dale’s 1-1 friendly draw with Blackburn.

His last match at the Crown Oil Arena was in November when Dale put on a fine performance to thrash Swindon 4-0.

However, Mr Handley did appear at the Crown Oil Arena in his days as a linesman, most notably in August 2007 for the Carling Cup tie against Stoke.

The game ended 2-2 after 120 minutes, before Dale won on penalties against a City side destined to reach the Premier League nine months later.

Darren, a PE teacher, was promoted from the Conference list at the end of the 2013/14 season and refereed Oxford v Burton as his first league appointment.

He has officiated mainly in the bottom two divisions since then, as well as a handful of Championship fixtures last season.

Before the weekend, when he was in the middle at Morecambe v Grimsby, Mr Handley had taken charge of 30 games this season, showing 107 yellow cards and two red.

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