Cheshire official Mark Heywood will referee Tuesday’s game at Northampton, which might cause confusion among fans who like to keep track of this sort of thing.
That’s because Mark Heywood, with an ‘E’, shouldn’t be confused with West Yorkshire’s Mark Haywood, with an ‘A’, who refereed Dale’s home matches against Torquay and Mansfield this season.
We last saw Mr Heywood in November 2012 for the dreadful 1-0 home defeat by Morecambe in the FA Cup first round replay
His last league game involving Dale was at Spotland in October 2011 when Ashley Grimes scored twice in the 2-1 home win over Wycombe.
However, we have also seen Mark at pre-season friendlies against Radcliffe Borough and Manchester United in recent years.
So far this season Mr Heywood has refereed 23 games, showing 76 yellow cards and two red.
His most recent fixture was the Championship fixture between Barnsley and Leicester last Tuesday.