Martin Coy is the man in the middle for Dale’s first home fixture of the season against Scunthorpe on Saturday.
This is a quick return to Spotland for the County Durham official, who refereed Dale’s friendly against Fleetwood four weeks ago.
We last saw Mr Coy in competitive action in March at the home game versus Shrewsbury. Supporters may recall Dale lost 2-0 that night, 24 hours before the infamous Fans Forum…
Martin also appeared at Spotland early last season for the EFL Trophy group game versus Manchester United U21, which finished goalless before The Red Devils won a bonus point on penalties.
Prior to that, Mr Coy was at Spotland in November 2019 for Dale’s 2-1 defeat to Bristol Rovers, while four months earlier, he had refereed the pre-season friendly against Huddersfield, a game The Terriers won 3-1 when they opted to wear their Paddy Power sponsored shirts as part of a publicity stunt.
Martin was also in charge at Doncaster on New Year’s Day 2019, where he oversaw an abject performance by Dale as Rovers romped to a 5-0 win.
Earlier in that season, Coy was in the middle at the Crown Oil Arena for the 3-0 defeat of Gillingham in which Ian Henderson scored his only hat-trick for the club.
In 2017/18, his debut campaign on the National List, Martin officiated two Dale games.
He refereed the Checkatrade Trophy group match at home to Stoke City U21 at the start of October, a game that ended in a goalless draw, before Stoke won 5-4 on penalties.
Seven weeks later, Mr Coy was back at the Crown Oil Arena for the League One fixture versus Peterborough, although on this occasion he was a replacement for the original referee.
Dale were 2-0 winners that afternoon thanks to goals from Calvin Andrew and Callum Camps.
This will be Martin’s third appointment of this season after Bolton v MK Dons last Saturday and Hull v Wigan (Carabao Cup) on Tuesday.