Experienced Football League referee Eddie Ilderton will be the man in the middle for arguably Dale’s biggest league game of the season against Oxford on Saturday.
Mr Ilderton is in 12th season as a league referee and his first appointment came at Spotland when Dale faced Leyton Orient on the opening day of the 2002/03 campaign.
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, although we haven’t seen him at Spotland since April 2012 when he refereed the 5-2 home loss to Sheffield United.
However, just over three months ago he was in charge of our 2-1 win at Morecambe.
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)
20 August 2011 Oldham v Rochdale Lost 0-2
10 April 2012 Rochdale v Sheffield U Lost 2-5
16 November 2013 Morecambe v Rochdale Won 2-1
So far this season Eddie has refereed 21 games, showing 40 yellow cards and three red.