Richard Clark is the man in the middle for Dale’s trip to Coventry City on Saturday.

The Northumberland official is in his fifth season on the league list and Dale will always provide him with good memories as his debut match at this level was our 1-1 draw at Chesterfield in August 2012.

We then saw him again later in the campaign when he refereed the exciting 2-2 home draw with promotion-bound Port Vale.

In 2013/14, Mr Clark officiated at Dale’s 2-1 home loss to Fleetwood, while in 2014/15 he took charge of the FA Cup replay defeat of Northampton and the 2-1 midweek win at Notts County.

Richard was also due to referee our game at Bradford in February, but had to withdraw through injury.

Those injury problems actually meant his final game of last season was on 5th March and he didn’t return until early October this term with the Checkatrade Trophy tie between Carlisle and Blackburn U23.

His only other appointments since then have been Blackpool v Cambridge and Morecambe v Stevenage and in total, in his three games, Richard has shown seven yellow cards.

Photo: Action Images

Rochdale Polls