Referee Geof Eltringham will bring back all sorts of bad memories for Dale fans when he takes charge against Plymouth on Saturday.

The County Durham official was the referee for our FA Cup defeat at home to FC United in November 2010 and while it was an extremely embarrassing evening for all Dale fans, the visitors’ winning goal was shrouded in controversy and should have been disallowed.

Television replays showed the ball had been kicked out of Josh Lillis’s grasp, but this was on the blind-side of Mr Eltringham, who awarded a goal.

Geoff has been back at Spotland since then, but it was an appearance with no controversy at all as we defeated Scunthorpe 1-0 early last season thanks to a Jason Kennedy goal.

His other Dale games since joining the league list in 2009 were both cup ties.

In September of that year Mr Eltringham refereed the 2-1 home loss to Bradford in the JPT, while 11 months later he was in the middle for the Carling Cup win at Barnsley.

So far this season Geoff has refereed 32 games, showing 74 yellow cards and eight red.

He was most recently at Sheffield Wednesday v Ipswich last Saturday and also took charge of Barnsley’s 6-0 home thrashing by Charlton in which Tom Kennedy was one of two Tykes sent-off.

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