Wiltshire-based referee Brendan Malone is the man in charge of Dale’s longest trip of the season to Plymouth on Saturday.
We last saw him for the controversial 2-1 win at AFC Wimbledon 11 months ago when Dale were helped by the first half sending-off of The Dons’ Jack Midson for an altercation with Bobby Grant.
That in turn led to various other altercations on the nearby away terrace!
Mr Malone was also due to take charge of our visit to Barnet in February, but withdrew through injury the day before the game.
We had previously seen Mr Malone at Brentford in March 2012 when Dale gave a particularly abject display in losing 2-0.
Mr Malone is in his fourth season on the league list and has spent the majority of this time officiating in League One and League Two.
So far this term he has refereed four matches, showing 17 yellow cards and one red.
His most recent game was Stevenage’s 1-0 home loss to Leyton Orient last weekend.