Mark Brown will make his second appearance at Spotland in three weeks when he referees the Capital One Cup tie against Preston.
The Hull-based official was in the middle for the recent home friendly against Middlesbrough when he awarded Boro one correct penalty and one dubious penalty, but at the same time did Dale a favour by allowing us to finish the game with 11 men!
Last season Mr Brown took charge of two Dale victories, once at Spotland and once on the road.
In September he was the referee at Accrington for a game which Dale won 2-1 despite having George Donnelly sent-off shortly before half-time.
Four months later Mr Brown refereed the 3-0 home defeat of Plymouth which was memorable for two great goals by Ian Henderson and Michael Rose, while Argyle finished the game with ten men after Andres Gurrieri had been dismissed.
That was actually the last red card Mark showed, but he did send-off another player when he was at Spotland in October 2012 for the 0-0 draw with Fleetwood.
Ashley Grimes missed a penalty for Dale, while The Cod Army had Alex Marrow dismissed.
Currently in his fifth season as a league referee, this will be Mark’s ninth game involving Dale.
We first saw him in November 2010 at Spotland for the 3-3 draw with Swindon, while the following March he was in the middle for a 2-0 win at Hartlepool.
In April 2012 Mark refereed the final home game in Dale’s last League One spell, which ended in a 2-1 loss to MK Dons, while at the start of that campaign he was in charge of the goalless home draw with Carlisle.
In total last season he refereed 32 games, showing 77 yellow cards and seven red.
He started this season on Saturday with Wigan v Reading in the Championship.