Dale travel down to the league leaders MK Dons on Saturday, and our build up begins here with a look at the referee Mike Thorpe from Ipswich.
Dale will be hoping for a change of luck under referee Mike Thorpe when he takes charge of our first ever game at stadium: mk.
Mr Thorpe first took charge of Dale in a game at Doncaster in October 2003, when we were lucky to escape with only a 2-1 defeat.
In December 2005 he was in the middle for the 4-1 loss at Grimsby, a defeat which set us off on a terrible set of results that could so easily have ended in relegation.
Mike is now in his sixth season on the league list and he is generally regarded as one of the least noticeable officials.
However, he enjoyed a good 2005/06 campaign, culminating in him being awarded the play-off semi-final between Preston and Leeds at Deepdale.
Leeds won the game 2-0, despite having two men sent-off. There were also nine other players booked as Mr Thorpe struggled to keep control.
He has continued to get his fair share of games at Championship level since then, with the most recent coming on New Year’s Day at Selhurst Park, where Crystal Palace played Norwich.
In total this term Mike has refereed 23 games, showing 66 yellow cards and 4 red. One of his yellow cards went to Grant Holt last Saturday in the game between Nottingham Forest and Swindon.
Other famous Mikes
Other famous Thorpes