Experienced EFL referee Eddie Ilderton is the man in the middle when Dale entertain Southend on Saturday.
Mr Ilderton is in 16th season as a league referee and this will be his 24th appointment at a Rochdale match.
That long list started at Spotland on the opening day of the 2002/03 campaign when Eddie refereed his first Football League game as Dale recorded a 1-0 win over Leyton Orient.
Just four months earlier he was one of the assistant referees when we lost at home to Rushden & Diamonds in the play-offs.
We last saw Mr Ilderton in September when he refereed the 3-0 home defeat of Gillingham, in which the visitors had Tom Eaves sent-off for elbowing Joe Rafferty.
The full list of Eddie’s Dale matches as a referee is:
Aug 02 Rochdale v Leyton Orient W 1-0
Feb 03 Darlington v Rochdale W 1-0
Apr 03 Rochdale v Kidderminster L 0-1
Sep 03 Lincoln v Rochdale D 1-1
Sep 04 Rochdale v Scarborough (LDV) W 4-1
Nov 04 Rochdale v Oxford (FAC) W 2-1
Dec 04 Rochdale v Bristol R D 0-0
Aug 05 Rochdale v Macclesfield W 3-1
Apr 06 Rochdale v Peterborough W 1-0
Feb 07 Notts Co v Rochdale W 2-1
Oct 07 Rochdale v Bury (JPT) L 1-3
Mar 11 Rochdale v Charlton W 2-0
Jul 11 Crewe v Rochdale (F) L 1-2
Aug 11 Oldham v Rochdale L 0-2
Apr 12 Rochdale v Sheffield U L 2-5
Nov 13 Morecambe v Rochdale W 2-1
Mar 14 Rochdale v Oxford W 3-0
Oct 14 Rochdale v Gillingham D 1-1
Mar 14 Rochdale v Yeovil W 2-1
Aug 15 Rochdale v Coventry (COC) D 1-1 (won on pens)
Feb 16 Rochdale v Crewe D 2-2
Dec 16 Northampton v Rochdale W 3-2
Sep 17 Rochdale v Gillingham W 3-0
This will be Mr Ilderton’s 17th match this season, with the previous 16 seeing 46 yellow cards and six red.
His most recent appointment was Wigan v Peterborough last Saturday.