Select Group referee Graham Scott is the man in the middle when Dale travel to St James’ Park to take on Newcastle United in the FA Cup third round replay on Tuesday.
The Oxford-based official joined the National List ahead of the 2008/09 campaign and six years later he refereed his first Premier League game at Turf Moor, where Burnley faced Aston Villa.
In 2015/16, Graham was promoted to the Select Group on a permanent basis and he has refereed mainly in the Premier League since then, with West Ham v Bournemouth on New Year’s Day being his 64th top flight appointment.
Mr Scott’s history with Dale is quite brief, although it does involve two previous FA Cup ties.
In November 2008 he was in charge of our 2-0 second round defeat at Forest Green, while five years later Graham was the referee when Dale picked-up their impressive 2-1 win at Rotherham to set-up a third round meeting with Leeds.
We have also seen him twice in league action; firstly during the 1-1 draw at Aldershot in January 2010 and most recently in September 2014 when he refereed Dale’s impressive 4-0 victory at Crawley.
Before the weekend, when he was appointed to Luton v Birmingham in the Championship, Graham had officiated at 16 games this season, showing 63 yellow cards and four red.
He refereed Watford v Tranmere in their initial FA Cup meeting last week, while Mr Scott’s Premier League appointments this term include Newcastle v Watford, Wolves v Chelsea, Manchester City v Aston Villa and Tottenham v Brighton.
Meanwhile, Dale will get their second experience of VAR in this tie, with Merseyside’s Peter Bankes the man in charge.