Refwatch Preview: Dale v Cheltenham Thursday, 24th Apr 2014 09:00 by TVOS Dale will hope there isn’t a sense of déjà -vu when Oliver Langford referees Saturday’s potential promotion-clincher at home to Cheltenham. Four years ago the West Midlands-based official was at Spotland for the late-season midweek encounter with Darlington which Dale needed to win to seal their promotion from League Two. As we all remember, Darlo won 1-0 to postpone Dale’s promotion, although the victory couldn’t prevent The Quakers’ relegation to non-league football. More recently, we have happier experiences with Oliver as the referee. Just two months ago he was in charge at AFC Wimbledon where Scott Hogan’s hat-trick helped Dale to a 3-0 success. We also met Mr Langford in the first half of the 2011/12 season when he refereed the 2-0 Carling Cup win at QPR and the 1-0 league victory at Preston. However, another contrast is provided by the last time we saw Oliver at Spotland, which was in December 2012 when York won 3-2 after racing into a 3-0 half-time lead. Saturday will be his eighth Dale fixture, with the first — our 3-1 home defeat of Barnet in August 2008 - being Oliver’s debut game at Football League level. He also refereed Dale on Boxing Day 2009 in the exciting 2-2 draw at Crewe in which Kallum Higginbotham scored a terrific long-range goal. So far this season Mr Langford has officiated at 34 matches, showing 70 yellow cards and four red. His most recent appointment was at Oxford v York last Saturday, while the week before he refereed the televised game between QPR and Nottingham Forest. Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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