James Oldham will make his second attempt to referee Rochdale v Fleetwood at Spotland this coming Saturday.
I say ‘second attempt’, as Mr Oldham was appointed to this very same fixture on Boxing Day last season, only for a bit of shuffling around seeing him go to Stevenage v Forest Green instead.
Coincidentally, James’ only other Dale game was on this weekend 12 months ago when he was the man in the middle at AFC Wimbledon, where we went down to a 3-2 defeat.
That was Mr Oldham’s first game at League One level after he had spent the early weeks of the 2019/20 campaign officiating solely in League Two.
James was promoted to the National List for last term after just one season refereeing in the National League.
However, that campaign culminated in the ultimate non-league appointment when he refereed Salford v AFC Fylde in the play-off final at Wembley.
Back to last season and the Derbyshire whistler oversaw 26 games, showing 82 yellow cards and five red.
In this campaign he has refereed three matches, most recently Colchester v Bolton a fortnight ago.