Referee John Brooks will take charge of a Dale match for the third time this season when we visit Scunthorpe on Saturday.

The Leicestershire official was in the middle for the 0-0 home draw versus Bury at the end of August in which he sent-off The Shakers’ goalkeeper, Joe Murphy, for handling outside the area.

Surprisingly, Bury managed to get the decision overturned on appeal!

Seven weeks later John refereed Dale’s 2-2 draw at Fleetwood in which the home side’s Wes Burns was sent-off for a bad tackle on Callum Camps.

Surprisingly, Fleetwood managed to get the decision overturned on appeal!

John is in his second season on the National List and this will be his fourth Dale appointment in that time.

The first was in September 2016 when he took charge of our trip to Millwall, which fans will recall Dale won 3-2 thanks to a last-minute Ian Henderson penalty shortly after the home side had been reduced to ten men!

Surprisingly, Millwall didn’t appeal that red card!

Mr Brooks is regarded as one of the EFL’s best referees and although he is only in his second season at this level, he has performed well enough to receive three Championship appointments this term.

The most recent of those was Ipswich v Sheffield United a fortnight ago, following on from Reading v Burton and Sunderland v Brentford since December.

John had a busy first season in the EFL, taking charge of 36 matches up and down the country. This has continued this term with 41 appointments before midweek, when he was due at Walsall v Wigan.

In those 41 games, Mr Brooks has shown 128 yellow cards and six red.

John moved up from refereeing in the National League in summer 2016, where he ended the campaign taking charge of Grimsby v Braintree in the play-offs.

A few weeks later he was a linesman at the FA Cup Final between Crystal Palace and Manchester United, which was the culmination of several high-profile appointments on the line.

Not only did John ‘line’ in the Premier League most weekends, he was also a FIFA assistant, meaning he was involved in many games around Europe.

Lining duties took him to Poland (Legia Warsaw v Midtjylland), Greece (PAOK v Borussia Dortmund) and Cyprus (Cyprus v Bosnia), among several other appointments.

Mr Brooks also made the headlines a few years ago at a Premier League game between Arsenal and Manchester City.

City’s fans had paid in the region of £60 for a match ticket and at the end of the match, John was picked up on a microphone telling a City player to go and thank their fans, with words to the effect of, “they’ve paid sixty quid to watch this game.”

He was ridiculously stood down for the next match, but this alleged misdemeanour hasn’t got in the way of his progress since.

Photo: Action Images

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