Dale will be hoping for a better outcome when Garry Sutton referees Saturday’s match at Walsall than they had last time they saw him.
That game was our supposed promotion-clincher at Torquay last April, which saw around 1,000 Dale fans descend on Plainmoor waiting for over 40 years of hurt to end.
No more needs to be said as everyone will remember the outcome!
We had also met Garry early last season when he was the man in the middle for Dale’s U2/glass-induced 2-1 defeat at Rotherham.
Mr Sutton was dropped from the league list at the end of the 2006/07 campaign for poor marks, but he has fought his way back to such an extent that he refereed the 2009 Blue Square Premier play-off final between Torquay and Cambridge.
His last Dale game in his first spell on the list was in November 2006 when Tresor Kandol scored a hat-trick as we lost 3-2 at Barnet.
Prior to that, he refereed our 1-1 home draw with Cheltenham in August 2005, which was only his second match at league level.
He was also in charge at Wrexham on Boxing Day 2005, when a bizarre penalty awarded against Gareth Griffiths in Dale’s 2-1 defeat probably explains why he only lasted another 18 months on the league list!
So far this season Mr Sutton has refereed 17 games, showing 51 yellow cards and three red.
All his league matches have been in the bottom two divisions, with the most recent being Macclesfield v Morecambe on Tuesday.
REFWORLD PROFILE: http://refworld.com/referee/2339/1/garry-sutton