One of the Football League’s leading referees is in the middle for Dale’s short trip to Oldham on Saturday.

Wigan official Paul Tierney is the man in charge, adding to an impressive list of appointments this season.

The postman has overseen many high profile Championship fixtures, including Bolton v Preston last Saturday and Blackburn v Bolton earlier in the campaign, as well as Everton v Dagenham and Shrewsbury v Sheffield Wednesday in rounds three and four of the FA Cup.

Mr Tierney has also refereed four Premier League games and is expected to make the step-up to the Select Group for next season.

He appeared at St James Park for Newcastle v Bournemouth a fortnight ago, adding to Watford v West Ham, Southampton v Leicester and West Ham v Everton at other points in the campaign.

Dale saw Paul twice last season, with both games producing resounding victories.

He was at Spotland for the 3-0 defeat of Preston in November and then returned for our 4-0 midweek thrashing of Crewe in March.

Mr Tierney was also appointed to our match at Oldham in January, but that was postponed because of the weather and a new referee took charge of the rearranged fixture.

Those are Paul’s only Dale games as a referee, but he was on the line for two of our most memorable matches of modern times.

In September 2007, Mr Tierney was one of the assistants for the 3-2 home win over MK Dons in which Dale scored twice in injury time to clinch the points.

Eight months later, he returned for the play-off semi-final second leg against Darlington when we all remember Dale winning on penalties to get to Wembley.

Paul has quickly climbed the ladder since his promotion to the Football League in 2009 and regularly appears on televised matches and other fixtures of high importance.

Before the weekend, he had refereed 33 games this term, showing 95 yellow cards and two red.

Photo: Action Images via Reuters