Dale will meet a new referee on Saturday when Nick Kinseley takes charge of their League One fixture at Port Vale.
The Essex official is in his first season on the referees’ list and Saturday will be his 27th game of the campaign, seven of which have been in League One.
The most recent of those was three weeks ago when Nick refereed Wigan’s 5-1 win at Shrewsbury; interestingly, a week later, he was in the middle for Oxford’s 5-1 victory at Crawley in League Two!
Prior to his promotion last summer, Mr Kinseley had spent eight seasons refereeing in the Conference/National League, as well as lining in the Football League.
His first Football League refereeing appointment was Newport v Stevenage in August and all told this term, his 26 appointments have produced 67 yellow cards and nine red.