Cumbrian referee Anthony Backhouse is the man in the middle for Dale’s opening game of the season at Tranmere on Saturday.

The Workington official is in his third season on the referees’ list and this will be his fifth Dale appointment in that time.

We first saw him on New Year’s Day 2018 when he refereed the 2-1 home loss to Blackpool, which turned into a thoroughly miserable affair played in pouring rain on an increasingly flooded pitch!

Anthony then returned to the Crown Oil Arena on the second weekend of last season for our 4-1 loss to Peterborough.

He was then the fourth official in early January for Dale’s 4-0 home defeat by Burton and two months later he took charge of the 0-0 midweek home draw with Oxford.

Mr Backhouse joined the National List in 2017 after receiving the ultimate accolade in non-league football when he refereed Forest Green v Tranmere in the 2016/17 National League play-off final at Wembley.

He has since been in charge a large number of matches in League One and League Two and last term received 39 ‘middles’ in which he showed 105 yellow cards and five red.

Photo: Action Images

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