Paul Tierney’s appointments to Dale games are like buses; you wait six seasons for one and then get three in the space of four months!
The Wigan-based official refereed Dale’s 3-0 home defeat of Preston in November and will be in charge against Crewe on Tuesday.
However, the third appointment never actually happened! Paul was down to take charge of January’s trip to Oldham, only for the game to be postponed because of the weather conditions. It’s unlikely he will be appointed to the new date later this month, but you never know.
These are Mr Tierney’s only Dale games as a referee, but he was on the line for two of the most memorable Rochdale matches of modern times.
In September 2007, Paul was one of the assistants for the 3-2 home win over MK Dons in which Dale scored twice in injury time to clinch the points.
Eight months later, he returned for the play-off semi-final second leg against Darlington when we all remember Dale winning on penalties to get to Wembley.
Mr Tierney has quickly climbed the ladder since his promotion to the Football League in 2009 and last season refereed the League Two play-off semi-final second leg between Southend and Burton.
However, all his previous appointments were usurped earlier this term when Paul was put in charge of Swansea v WBA in the Premier League as part of a trial scheme for officials with the potential to progress to the top flight.
He followed that up with the big East Midlands meeting between twice former European Champions, Nottingham Forest, and Derby, as well as the Capital One Cup third round tie, Manchester City v Sheffield Wednesday.
Other notable games Mr Tierney has refereed in recent months are Fulham v Watford and Derby v Norwich, both live on Sky, as well as Tranmere v Swansea in the third round of the FA Cup and the fourth round replay, Fulham v Sunderland.
And this weekend just gone, he was the man in the middle for the big DYSporting v OlympicDale derby match at Carrow Road between Norwich and Ipswich.
Before that game, Paul had refereed 27 games this term, showing 100 yellow cards and six red.