Dale’s first-ever league game against Sunderland on Saturday will be officiated by a headline writer’s dream in the shape of Rutland referee Trevor Kettle.
References to whistling and things boiling over are sure to surface, especially if Mr Kettle grabs the headlines as he has been prone to do down the years.
He joined the league list in 2003 and one of his first games was Dale’s fine 3-1 win at Torquay in which Robert Betts scored twice and Michael Simpkins was sent-off.
Later that term Trevor was the referee for the famous ‘goose game’ at Scunthorpe, where the invading bird was one of the few performers on the pitch not to be shown a yellow card — Mr Kettle ridiculously booking 11 players having made a rod for his own back early in the match.
Trevor’s most recent Dale appointment was in March when he refereed our 2-0 home defeat to Fleetwood, while we last saw him on the road at Gillingham in November 2016, where Dale were beaten 3-0.
The full list of his Dale appointments is:
Aug 03 Torquay v Rochdale W 3-1
Apr 04 Scunthorpe v Rochdale D 2-2
Oct 06 Rochdale v Stockport L 1-3
Feb 09 Rochdale v Grimsby W 2-0
Jan 12 Rochdale v Preston D 1-1
Oct 12 Rochdale v Oxford W 2-0
Apr 14 Mansfield v Rochdale L 0-3
Jan 15 Rochdale v Crawley W 4-1
Dec 15 Rochdale v Colchester W 3-1
Nov 16 Gillingham v Rochdale L 0-3
Mar 18 Rochdale v Fleetwood L 0-2
So far this season, Mr Kettle has refereed eight games, showing 23 yellow cards and one red. His most recent appointment was Coventry v Barnsley last Saturday.