James Oldham will officiate a Dale game for the first time in almost a year when he takes charge of our trip to Grimsby Town on Saturday.
We last saw the Derbyshire referee at the end of last March when he was at Spotland for the 2-0 home win over Carlisle United.
Earlier last term, James was in the middle for Dale’s Papa John’s Trophy tie at Port Vale, in which an injury time Max Taylor own goal gave the home side a 1-0 win.
Despite being based relatively close to Rochdale, Mr Oldham has only refereed two other Dale games.
In October 2019, he oversaw our trip to AFC Wimbledon, where a patched-up Dale side had the likes of Calvin Andrew in central defence as they went down to a 3-2 defeat to The Dons.
James was then at the Crown Oil Arena at the start of October 2020 for Dale’s home game versus Fleetwood.
A late Fabio Tavares goal handed Dale a 2-1 win that afternoon, although they weren’t successful again on home soil until the following April after a dreadful run of form that didn’t seem to bother the manager of the time!
Oldham is in his fourth season on the National List having been promoted after just one campaign refereeing in the National League.
That season culminated in the ultimate non-league appointment when James refereed Salford v AFC Fylde in the 2018/19 play-off final at Wembley.
This term has seen him handle 22 games, which have produced 78 yellow cards and six reds. His most recent appointment was Tranmere v Hartlepool last weekend.