The familiar figure of referee Darren Drysdale will take charge of Dale’s home game against Leyton Orient on Saturday.
The Lincolnshire official has been in the middle for 12 previous Dale games since he joined the league list in 2004, the most recent of which was last season’s televised 0-0 draw at Bury.
Dale had Ian Henderson dismissed in that game, but managed to keep The Shakers out to earn a point on a pitch that was nearly as bad as it is now!
Two months before that, Darren made his most recent appearance at Spotland for Dale’s 2-0 win over Bristol Rovers, a game in which we played in our white away kit as Rovers turned up with purple and black stripes.
Mr Drysdale, who is in the RAF, is in his tenth season on the referees’ list and you have to go back to October 2004 for his first Dale appointment - a 3-0 home win over Macclesfield.
Twelve months later he was in the middle for our 3-2 victory at Chester in which Matt Gilks was rather fortunate to avoid a red card after his early collision with home striker Greg Blundell.
The full list of Darren’s Dale games is:
Oct 2004 Rochdale v Macclesfield Won 3-0
Oct 2005 Chester v Rochdale Won 3-2
Nov 2006 Rochdale v Bury Lost 1-3
Jan 2007 Wycombe v Rochdale Drew 1-1
Feb 2008 Rochdale v Peterborough Lost 0-2
Sep 2008 Rotherham v Rochdale Drew 2-2
Feb 2011 Tranmere v Rochdale Drew 1-1
Apr 2011 Rochdale v Brentford Lost 0-1
Oct 2011 Rochdale v Chesterfield Drew 1-1
Mar 2013 York v Rochdale Drew 0-0
Dec 2013 Rochdale v Bristol R Won 2-0
Mar 2014 Bury v Rochdale Drew 0-0
So far this season Darren has refereed 18 games, showing 61 yellow cards and five red. His most recent appointment was Rotherham v Bolton in the Championship just over a week ago.