All roads are leading to Nottingham this weekend, as Dale take on Nottm County in a match vital for both sides. We kick start out build up with a look at referee Ray Lee from Essex.
Dale will meet Ray Lee for the second time this term when he takes charge of Saturday’s game Notts County.
The Essex official was in the middle at Peterborough on the opening day of the season when we were well beaten 3-0 by a team who look certain to gain promotion.
Ray also refereed a Dale match early last season and it is one that was certainly quite eventful.
The game in question was at Swindon where Dale went down to a narrow 1-0 defeat, thanks to Alan Goodall’s needless own goal.
However, Mr Lee awarded Swindon two penalties in the second half, yet Matthew Gilks managed to save them both!
Ray is in his second full season as a league referee, although he did take charge of a few matches at this level in 2005/06 when he was still on the Conference list.
He hasn’t attracted too many headlines during his two seasons among the ‘big boys’, but one interesting fact is that despite being called Ray, his first name, as you might expect, is not Raymond! He is actually called Rayford Lee!
Now, how many Rayfords do you know?
Some famous Rays
Sting
Ray Wilkins
Ray Winstone
Ray Parlour
Billy Ray Cyrus
Some famous Lees
General Lee
Lee Buggie
Chris Lee
Bitter
Lee & Lance