Dale travel to Bratfud this weekend, and they've only gone and given us a Yorkie to officiate in this game.
The ‘TVOS Theory of Yorkshire Referees’ will be put to the test on Saturday when we have a Yorkshire official (forget all this Humberside nonsense) in charge against a Yorkshire team. Not only that, but Carl Boyeson has history with this particular encounter, as he was the men in the middle when Bradford won 5-0 at Spotland in the Carling Cup a few seasons ago. He sent off Gary Jones that night, so let’s hope he isn’t waiting with his red card should Jonah make another indiscretion, especially as there are records to be broken. We’ve already met Mr Boyeson once this season as he was in the middle for our 1-1 draw at Darlington in October. He had a reasonably good game that night, although his booking of Alfie – who allegedly dived despite being clattered by the goalkeeper – was a dreadful decision. This will be Mr Boyeson’s tenth game in charge of Dale since joining the league list in 2002 and it’s fair to say he’s not one of our favourite officials. Some of his decisions are bizarre, to say the least, including the red card he showed to Ernie Cooksey at Notts County a few years ago. It was overturned a few days later, but it didn’t mask a poor decision at the time. We saw Mr Boyeson twice last season. He was at Spotland for the 1-1 draw with Shrewsbury at the end of September and then took charge of the 1-0 defeat at Hartlepool in December, a game which turned out to be Steve Parkin’s last as Dale manager. However, although we haven’t been overly impressed with Mr B in the past, he went up in our estimation earlier this season for reporting bury fans who showered him with coins after their recent home loss to Brentford. Anyway, let’s look back at Carl’s previous Dale games for a form guide: 31 August 2002 Rochdale v Southend U D3 Lost 1-2 21 January 2003 Rochdale v Lincoln C D3 Lost 0-1 03 January 2005 Notts Co v Rochdale L2 Drew 0-0 09 April 2005 Rochdale v Leyton Orient L2 Won 2-0 23 August 2005 Rochdale v Bradford C CC Lost 0-5 25 April 2006 Rochdale v Barnet L2 Drew 1-1 30 September 2006 Rochdale v Shrewsbury T L2 Drew 1-1 15 December 2006 Hartlepool U v Rochdale L2 Lost 0-1 2 October 2007 Darlington v Rochdale L2 Drew 1-1 Looks like we’re due a win then? 5 famous Carls Karl Kennedy Karl Douglas Carl Cavanah Carlisle Carl Harris