Former Premier League referee Keith Stroud is the man in charge when Dale travel to face Crewe at Gresty Road on Tuesday.
The diminutive official joined the referees’ list in 2004 and his second game was Dale’s 3-0 win at Wycombe on the third weekend of that season.
Twelve months later he was in charge for our 1-1 draw at Barnet, but we then had to wait until August 2009 for his next Rochdale match.
That was against Bury at Spotland when Dale won 3-0 and featured Tom Kennedy’s legendary goal celebration.
A few months later Mr Stroud was in the middle for the 2-1 win at Dagenham which kick-started the ‘slump doesn’t start here’ run of results!
By this time Keith had refereed in the Premier League before leaving that level of the game in unsatisfactory circumstances which included a court case with the powers that be.
However, he has continued to operate at Football League level and receives a number of high profile appointments, including last term’s League 1 play-off semi-final between Rotherham and Preston and the 2012/13 play-off final between Bradford and Northampton at Wembley.
Keith’s most recent Dale fixture was at Wycombe in November 2012 where Bobby Grant’s deflected last minute goal earned John Coleman’s team a 2-1 win.