Referee Iain Williamson will make his first-ever visit to Spotland on Saturday when Dale entertain AFC Wimbledon.
The Reading-based official has been on the league list since 2002, but has only crossed swords with Dale on three previous occasions, all away from Spotland.
In January 2003, Iain was in the middle at Roots Hall where Dale suffered their customary loss (0-1) to Southend.
Ten months later we saw him at Leyton Orient, where Dale went down to a 2-1 defeat thanks to Gary Alexander’s last minute goal. Mr Williamson had earlier awarded each side a penalty, which were both converted, Lee McEvilly scoring for Dale.
Iain’s most recent Dale match was at Rotherham in December 2007 in what was our final visit to their old Millmoor ground.
This time Mr Williamson took charge of a Dale win as we started to find the form that eventually took us to the play-offs and Wembley.
Early goals from Gary Jones and Adam Le Fondre gave Dale a 2-0 lead and although Rotherham hit back to level matters, later efforts from Glenn Murray and McEvilly wrapped up a fine 4-2 win for Keith Hill’s rampant team.
So far this season Iain has refereed eight matches, one of them being AFC Wimbledon’s home defeat of Fleetwood in August.
He has shown 20 yellow cards and one red, which went to Chesterfield’s Eoin Doyle at Bristol Rovers last Saturday.