It will be a case of déjà-vu at Bournemouth on Saturday when Gavin Ward referees this fixture for the second time in five months.
The Surrey official was the man in the middle for Dale’s 2-1 win at Dean Court on the final day of last season and he has again been appointed to this match this weekend.
Affectionately known as ‘the schoolboy’ among his colleagues due to his cherubic face and extremely young looks, this is in fact 31-year-old Gavin’s fifth season on the league list.
Away from Bournemouth, Dale have met him on two previous occasions.
He was the referee at Barnet in March 2009 when we lost the game 2-1 and had Chris Dagnall shown a straight red card for a bad tackle.
Gavin also refereed Dale at Wycombe in January 2008 when he spotted a late foul on Ben Muirhead and awarded a penalty which Tom Kennedy converted for the only goal of the game.
This season Mr Ward has refereed 10 matches, showing 32 yellow cards and one red.
He was most recently at Southend v Shrewsbury last Friday.