Seasoned campaigner Graham Salisbury is the man-in-the-middle for Dale’s first match of 2016 at Walsall on Saturday.
The Preston-based official has been a regular at Dale games down the years, although we haven’t seen him since March 2012 when he refereed the 3-2 home defeat of Oldham.
Earlier that season Mr Salisbury was in charge of Dale’s 4-2 win at Bury in which he sent-off Nicky Adams for two rather silly yellow cards.
Graham was also the referee for a more famous 4-2 victory at Accrington in March 2010 which, as it transpired, proved to be the game that took Dale up from League Two.
The full list of Graham’s Dale matches is:
Oct 01 Rochdale v Southport (LDV) W 2-0
Aug 04 Rochdale v Bury L 0-3
Oct 05 Rochdale v Notts Co W 3-0
Nov 05 Tranmere v Rochdale (LDV) L 2-3
Dec 05 Rochdale v Leyton Orient L 2-4
Apr 06 Notts Co v Rochdale D 1-1
Nov 08 Rochdale v Macclesfield D 1-1
Jul 09 Radcliffe v Rochdale (Fr) W 1-0
Dec 09 Rochdale v Morecambe W 4-1
Mar 10 Accrington v Rochdale W 4-2
Mar 11 Rochdale v Notts Co W 1-0
Sep 11 Bury v Rochdale W 4-2
Mar 12 Rochdale v Oldham W 3-2
Before the Christmas fixtures, Mr Salisbury had been very busy this season, refereeing 20 matches and showing 58 yellow cards and five red.
His son, Michael Salisbury, regularly referees in the National League and is also an assistant referee in the Premier League. He recently learned that he has also been promoted to the FIFA list of assistant referees from the start of 2016.