Essex-based referee Fred Graham is the man in charge of Dale’s latest long away trip when they visit Aldershot on Saturday.

We last saw Mr Graham in February when he refereed Dale’s excellent 1-1 draw at League One champions-elect, Charlton, while in March 2010 when he was the man in the middle at Spotland for the 4-1 defeat of Grimsby, in which Chris Dagnall scored a hat-trick.

Earlier in that promotion campaign Fred refereed Dale’s 1-0 loss at Burton.

Prior to that, we saw Mr Graham for the 0-0 draw at Barnet in September 2007, while 11 months earlier he refereed the embarrassing 7-1 thrashing at Lincoln.

Fred’s league career has been rather chequered.

He was promoted to the list in 2004, but only lasted one season before being demoted back to the Conference and reserve team matches.

However, he must have done well in 2005/06 because he was immediately promoted back again.

This season he has refereed 18 games, showing 59 yellow cards and no red. His last match was Watford v Barnsley at the start of this month.

He was most recently at Tuesday’s Championship game between Birmingham and Hull, while earlier in the season he refereed Charlton’s Carling Cup tie at home to Preston.

Photo: Action Images

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