Experienced Football League referee Eddie Ilderton is the man in the middle for Dale’s real derby match at Oldham on Saturday.
Mr Ilderton has been a league referee for nine years, with his first appointment coming at Spotland when Dale faced Leyton Orient on the opening day of the 2002/03 season.
Just four months earlier Eddie was one of the assistant referees when we lost at home to Rushden & Diamonds in the play-offs.
He has been a frequent official at Dale games since then and we last saw him just three weeks ago for the friendly match at Crewe.
His last league game involving Dale was our 2-0 home win over Charlton in March.
The full list of Eddie’s Dale games as a referee is:
10 August 2002 Rochdale v Leyton Orient Won 1-0
11 February 2003 Darlington v Rochdale Won 1-0
15 April 2003 Rochdale v Kidderminster Lost 0-1
27 September 2003 Lincoln v Rochdale Drew 1-1
28 September 2004 Rochdale v Scarborough Won 4-1 (LDV)
13 November 2004 Rochdale v Oxford Won 2-1 (FAC)
18 December 2004 Rochdale v Bristol R Drew 0-0
27 August 2005 Rochdale v Macclesfield Won 3-1
17 April 2006 Rochdale v Peterborough Won 1-0
17 February 2007 Notts Co v Rochdale Won 2-1
9 October 2007 Rochdale v Bury Lost 1-3 (JPT)
29 March 2011 Rochdale v Charlton Won 2-0
30 July 2011 Crewe v Rochdale Lost 1-2 (Friendly)
So far this season Eddie has refereed three games, all of them rather high-profile.
He began with Brighton’s first game in their new stadium against Doncaster on the opening day of the season and then was on Sky last Thursday for the Carling Cup tie between Sheffield Wednesday and Blackpool.
On Tuesday he refereed the Championship fixture Leeds v Hull City.
REFWORLD PROFILE: http://refworld.com/referee/144/1