It’s the game of the day in League Two at Fleetwood on Saturday and the Football League have appointed one of their top performing officials to oversee the fixture.
Michael Naylor is the man in the middle, taking charge of a Lancashire derby just a week after refereeing the East Midlands battle between Derby and twice European Champions, Nottingham Forest.
Recent months have also seen the Sheffield-based official referee Derby v QPR, Blackburn v Blackpool and Middlesbrough v Wigan, as well as a tie in the third round of the FA Cup.
This will be Dale’s second game with Michael as referee this term after he officiated at the dramatic 3-2 home defeat of Northampton in October.
We also saw him at the JPT loss at Port Vale in August 2010 and last season’s 4-1 home win over Cheltenham.
Michael was also on the line for the promotion six-pointer with Bournemouth in April 2010, when his flag denied Brett Pittman what would have been a late winning goal for the visitors.
Fans will remember the match finished 0-0 in front of over 5,000 fans.
Mr Naylor has made good progress since joining the league list four years ago and in 2011/12 he refereed the League Two play-off semi-final first leg between Crewe and Southend.
In total this term, he has overseen 27 games, showing 71 yellow cards and one red and after Saturday’s promotion clash at Highbury, he will referee a serious relegation six-pointer between bury and Bristol Rovers on Tuesday.