Jeremy Simpson will be in charge when Dale make their bow in this season’s Johnstone’s Paint Trophy at home to Chesterfield on Tuesday.
The Carnforth-based PE teacher has been a regular at Dale games in recent seasons and we saw him twice last term.
He was in the middle against Doncaster at Spotland in November when Matty Done was sent-off in the visitors’ 3-1 win.
Four months later Mr Simpson made the short trip to Highbury, where he oversaw Fleetwood’s 1-0 defeat of Dale.
Other Dale games refereed by Jeremy were at home to Exeter (3-1) and Southend (0-3) in our promotion campaign and the 3-2 loss to Exeter in December 2012.
Now in his fourth season on the league list, ‘Jez’ finished his non-league career by refereeing the 2011/12 Blue Square Premier League play-off final between York and Luton at Wembley.
Prior to his promotion, he was an assistant referee on the Premier League and also a FIFA official, which meant he travelled overseas to ‘line’ at European and international matches.
Jeremy had previously visited Spotland on linesman duties, most notably in 2010/11 when he was on the line for the FA Cup tie against FC United of Manchester and our first game in League One at home to Hartlepool.
Before Saturday, when he was due at Derby v Brentford, Mr Simpson had refereed eight games this season, showing 31 yellow cards and two red.