Saturday’s referee at Bristol Rovers will have travelled even further than Dale and their fans to be at the Memorial Stadium.
Ross Joyce is the man in the middle, with the referee making the long journey from Eston, near Middlesbrough, for the League One fixture.
The 30-year-old is in his second season on the National List and this will be his second game involving Dale.
He was previously in charge of our game at Crewe in February, when Dale gave a particularly poor performance in losing 2-0 to the relegation-bound Railwaymen.
At 30-years-old, Ross is one of the EFL’s youngest referees, although he did officiate at Conference level for seven seasons before making the step up.
This culminated in him taking charge of the 2014/15 play-off final between Bristol Rovers and Grimsby in front of over 50,000 fans at Wembley.
Before his promotion Ross had been on the line for several Dale matches, although one — the 3-2 FA Cup loss to FC United — is a game we would rather forget!
So far this season, Mr Joyce has refereed nine games, showing 41 yellow cards. His most recent appointment was Bury v Port Vale last Saturday, where some Shakers’ fans described him as "faultless” after their 4-1 win.