Mark Brown is the man in the middle for Dale’s game at Chesterfield on Saturday.
This is his second Dale appointment in the last seven weeks as Mark was also in charge of our goalless home draw with Bristol Rovers at the start of February.
On this coming weekend 12 months ago, the Hull-based official refereed Dale’s 1-0 Easter Monday defeat at Wigan, in which Ian Henderson was sent-off for the second consecutive away game.
And in our 2013/14 promotion season, Mr Brown took charge of two Dale victories, once at Spotland and once on the road.
In September 2013, he was the referee at Accrington for a game which Dale won 2-1, despite having George Donnelly sent-off shortly before half-time.
Four months later Mark refereed the 3-0 home defeat of Plymouth which was memorable for two great goals by Henderson and Michael Rose, while Argyle finished the game with ten men after Andres Gurrieri had been dismissed.
Currently in his seventh season as a league referee, this will be Mark’s 13th game involving Dale. The summary of his previous ten appointments is:
Nov 10 Rochdale v Swindon D 3-3
Mar 11 Hartlepool v Rochdale W 2-0
Aug 11 Rochdale v Carlisle D 0-0
Apr 12 Rochdale v MK Dons L 1-2
Oct 12 Rochdale v Fleetwood D 0-0
Sep 13 Accrington v Rochdale W 2-1
Jan 14 Rochdale v Plymouth W 3-0
Jul 14 Rochdale v Middlesbrough (F) L 1-3
Aug 14 Rochdale v Preston (COC) L 0-2
Dec 14 Rochdale v Aldershot (FAC) W 4-1
Mar 16 Wigan v Rochdale L 0-1
Feb 17 Rochdale v Bristol R D 0-0
So far this season Mr Brown has taken charge of 11 games, in which he has shown 27 yellow cards. His most recent appointment was Fleetwood v AFC Wimbledon last Saturday.