We have referee Darren Drysdale in charge of our game at Spotland on Saturday. We do our usual bit of looking back at him and seeing what we should expect.

One of the skinniest referees in Football League history will be at Spotland on Saturday when Darren Drysdale takes charge of Dale’s six-pointer with Peterborough.

Mr Drysdale, who is in the RAF, is in his fourth season on the referees’ list and has appeared at Spotland twice before.

He was here in October 2004 when we thrashed Macclesfield 3-0 and then returned in November 2006 for bury’s fortunate 3-1 win. In that game he awarded the Shakers two penalties (Got to get Bishop’s goal total up) and sent-off Jon Boardman.

We last saw Mr Drysdale for the 1-1 draw at Wycombe just over a year ago, while he was the referee at Chester in October 2005 when Gregg Blundell launched his vicious assault on Matt Gilks early in the game.

Searching the ‘net, it appears as though Darren courts plenty of controversy.

Earlier this season Mansfield’s new chairman raced onto the pitch to remonstrate with him after a controversial game against MK Dons. As you can see from the link ( http://www.roarofthecrowd.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=3405 ), one poster’s description of him is ‘a total dick’!

A few years ago he reported Dean Windass for verbally abusing him in the car park after a game at Bradford. Of course, we find it hard to believe that nice Mr Windass would say anything more abusive than “don’t give up your day job,” which is the alleged rumour.

Other famous Darrens
Darren Gough
Darren Ryan
Darren Maddy
Darren Ferguson
Darren Wrack

Other famous Drys and Dales
Crisp & Dry
Dry Dock
Dry Sherry
Rochdale
Emmerdale

Photo: Action Images

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