Darren Handley is the referee for Dale’s home game against Wycombe Wanderers on Saturday.
The Bolton official is in his sixth season on the National List and this is his eighth match at the Crown Oil Arena as the man in the middle.
The first of those games was in February 2016 when Darren took charge of a 1-0 midweek win over Fleetwood, while in the following summer he refereed Dale’s 1-1 friendly draw with Blackburn.
In November 2016 he oversaw a fine 4-0 thrashing of Swindon, which was followed in July 2017 by a 2-0 win for Dale in a pre-season friendly against Middlesbrough.
In November 2017, Darren was back as referee for the Checkatrade Trophy tie against Doncaster, which Dale won on penalties after a 1-1 draw.
His last two Rochdale appointments have both been for friendlies — against Hull in the summer of 2018 and a couple of months ago versus Bradford, where torrential rain and a waterlogged pitch saw Mr Handley abandon the game at half-time.
Darren, a former PE teacher, was promoted from the Conference list at the end of the 2013/14 season and refereed Oxford v Burton as his first league appointment.
He has officiated mainly in the bottom two divisions since then, as well as a handful of Championship fixtures in 2015/16.
Injury and fitness problems saw him sidelined for the whole of last term, but he has returned for this campaign and has so far refereed five matches, showing 25 yellow cards and two red.