Lee Swabey will make the long journey up from Plymouth to referee Dale’s Roses game against Bradford City on Saturday.
This will be Mr Swabey’s eighth Dale appointment in his eight seasons on the National List, but his first appearance at Spotland.
We first saw Lee at Gillingham in January 2018, where Dale went down to a 2-1 defeat, and then the following November he was in the middle for our 3-2 loss at Shrewsbury.
That was the first of three Dale games for Mr Swabey in 2018/19, as he also refereed the 2-0 defeat at Luton in March 2019 and the 4-1 reverse at Portsmouth a month later.
However, Lee’s next Dale game eventually brought victory from one of our most famous performances of recent times.
That was at Southend early in the 2019/20 campaign, where the 3-0 win for Brian Barry-Murphy’s men featured the splendid Ian Henderson goal that was broadcast around the world to showcase the passing move that opened-up the Southend defence.
Mr Swabey’s next Dale game was at Portsmouth on Good Friday 2021 when he was a late replacement for Brett Huxtable for a match in which we were beaten 2-1.
More recently, Lee was in the middle at Newport on the final day of last season, although his afternoon was cut short through injury and he watched on from the fourth official’s position as Dale recorded a 2-0 win.
Saturday will be the Devon whistler’s 30th game of this term, with the previous 29 producing 117 yellow cards and five reds. His most recent appointment was Cambridge v Fleetwood on Good Friday.