The familiar figure of referee Darren Drysdale will take charge of Dale’s FA Cup second round tie at home to Bury on Sunday.
This will be the third time the Lincolnshire official has refereed a game against The Shakers and in the previous two he has dismissed two Dale players.
The first was Jon Boardman in Bury’s 3-1 win at Spotland in November 2005, while in March 2014 he gave Ian Henderson his marching orders in the televised 0-0 draw at Gigg Lane.
Darren most recently refereed Dale’s 2-0 win at Blackpool in August, while he was at Spotland for the friendly against MK Dons in August and the 1-0 defeat of Leyton Orient at the back end of last season.
Mr Drysdale, who is in the RAF, is in his 12th season on the referees’ list and you have to go back to October 2004 for his first Dale appointment - a 3-0 home win over Macclesfield.
Twelve months later he was in the middle for our 3-2 victory at Chester in which Matt Gilks was rather fortunate to avoid a red card after his early collision with home striker Greg Blundell.
The full list of Darren’s Dale matches as a referee is:
Oct 04 Rochdale v Macclesfield W 3-0
Oct 05 Chester v Rochdale W 3-2
Nov 06 Rochdale v Bury L 1-3
Jan 07 Wycombe v Rochdale D 1-1
Feb 08 Rochdale v Peterborough L 0-2
Sep 08 Rotherham v Rochdale D 2-2
Feb 11 Tranmere v Rochdale D 1-1
Apr 11 Rochdale v Brentford L 0-1
Oct 11 Rochdale v Chesterfield D 1-1
Mar 13 York v Rochdale D 0-0
Dec 13 Rochdale v Bristol R W 2-0
Mar 14 Bury v Rochdale D 0-0
Apr 15 Rochdale v Leyton Orient W 1-0
Aug 15 Rochdale v MK Dons W 2-1 (Friendly)
Aug 15 Blackpool v Rochdale W 2-0