Matt Donohue will referee his first League One fixture when Dale entertain Bristol Rovers on Tuesday.
The Manchester official is in his debut season on the National List and after refereeing six League Tow games and a tie in the Checkatrade Trophy, the appointments secretary has decided it is now time for Matt to step up a level.
However, this isn’t his first Dale game, as Mr Donohue was in charge of our pre-season friendly at Stockport in July, in which Ian Henderson missed a penalty, before Joe Thompson later scored the only goal of the night.
A former season ticket holder at Southend United, Matt moved to Manchester ten years ago and progressed through the ranks to become one of the top performing officials in the National League last season.
He refereed Sutton v Boreham Wood in the National League play-offs and started this term in mid-August with Colchester v Port Vale in League Two.
His early appointments were all in the south-east, as Matt possibly spent part of the summer back at his Essex roots.
A primary school teacher in Denton, Mr Donohue has refereed seven matches to date this term, showing 28 yellow cards and one red.
His most recent appointment was Yeovil v Swindon in League Two.