If his recent appointments are any guide, Wednesday’s referee, Craig Pawson from Sheffield, is the Football League’s top-performing official this season.
Just over a month ago he was given a taster of life in the top flight when he refereed the Premier League game between Swansea and Newcastle.
As it happened, that was a fairly mundane encounter, but he followed it up with a potentially more volatile match at the Amex Stadium where Brighton defeated local rivals Crystal Palace, 3-0.
Craig then had a busy Easter weekend, refereeing bury v Crewe on Good Friday and Cardiff v Blackburn on Easter Monday. On Sunday, he was fourth official at Newcastle v Fulham.
Now in his fifth season as a league referee, Mr Pawson’s first game at this level was Dale’s visit to Grimsby on the opening day of the 2008/09 campaign.
We have seen him on four other occasions since then, as shown in this list of Dale appointments:
Aug 2008 Grimsby v Rochdale, D 0-0
Sep 2009 Rochdale v Hereford W 4-1
Jan 2010 Rochdale v Port Vale D 0-0
Oct 2010 Bristol R v Rochdale L 1-2
Apr 2012 Chesterfield v Rochdale L 1-2
Craig ended last season by refereeing the League Two play-off final at Wembley between Crewe and Cheltenham, while this term he has overseen 32 matches, showing 88 yellow cards and three red.