Select Group 2 referee Peter Bankes is the man in the middle for Tuesday’s home game against Oldham.
The Liverpool official is in his fourth season on the referees’ list and this is his third Dale game.
We last saw Mr Bankes in October 2016 when he took charge of another local derby at home to Bury.
On that occasion, Dale won the game 2-0, but The Shakers finished with only nine men after losing their discipline in the second half and having two players sent-off.
In September 2015, Peter refereed Dale’s 2-1 home defeat of Scunthorpe, while earlier this season he was in the middle for Oldham’s 2-1 loss at Blackpool.
Mr Bankes was promoted from the Conference list at the end of the 2013/14 season and refereed Newport v Wycombe as his first league appointment.
He made good progress in his first term and was rewarded at the end of the 2014/15 campaign with the League Two play-off semi-final first leg, Plymouth v Wycombe.
A year later Peter refereed Barnsley v Walsall in the League One play-off semi-final second leg and for the past two seasons he has been one of the new Select Group 2 referees, who mainly take charge of Championship fixtures and games such as tonight’s in League One and League Two.
His Championship appointments this season have included Sheffield United v Wolves, QPR v Fulham, Aston Villa v Birmingham and Norwich v Aston Villa live on Sky last weekend.
All told, Mr Bankes has refereed 37 games this season, showing 133 yellow cards and eight red.