Charles Breakspear will referee Dale’s game at Charlton for the second consecutive season when we visit The Valley on Saturday.

The Surrey whistler was in the middle there in November 2017 when Keith Hill’s Dale side went down to a 2-1 defeat after taking an early lead through Matty Gillam.

We have since seen Mr Breakspear in the opening weeks of this campaign when he refereed Dale’s 1-0 win at Coventry.

That game saw Charles show only one yellow card, which goes against the reputation he has for being a strong disciplinarian on the field of play.

So far this term, his 42 games have seen 138 yellow cards and 12 red cards, although he has only sent-off two players in league action since the end of October.

Further back in time, Breakspear refereed Dale’s 4-1 win at Colchester in December 2014 and our 1-1 FA Cup draw at Maidstone in December 2016.

Charles was promoted from the Conference list at the end of the 2012/13 season and his first Football League game was York v Northampton on the opening day of the following campaign.

He spent the majority of his first two years on the National List refereeing in the basement divisions, but in 2015/16, Mr Breakspear took charge of 11 games in the Championship.

Since the Select Group 2 list of officials was formed, he has officiated back in League One, League Two and the cup competitions and has actually refereed almost 130 matches in the last three seasons.

Photo: Action Images

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