Refwatch: Dale v Plymouth
Friday, 2nd Mar 2018 09:00 by TVOS

The familiar figure of Darren Drysdale will take charge of Dale’s home game against Plymouth Argyle on Saturday.

This will be Mr Drysdale’s 19th game involving Dale, stretching right back to the 2004/05 season.

His first Rochdale appointment came in October of that campaign when he was in the middle for a 3-0 home defeat of Macclesfield.

We last saw him in October when he refereed the home game against Northampton, which turned into a dramatic affair with a 2-2 final scoreline.

Ian Henderson scored twice to give Dale a 2-0 lead (although his second was a rebound from a saved penalty), only for The Cobblers to level matters with two goals in eight minutes late in the second half.

Mr Drysdale then awarded Northampton a late penalty, but Josh Lillis pulled-off a tremendous save from John-Joe O’Toole to earn his side a point.

Before that, Darren was also at the Crown Oil Arena in December 2015 when he refereed Dale’s disappointing 1-0 home loss to Bury in the FA Cup.

That was the third time he had overseen a game versus The Shakers, as he was also in charge at Spotland in November 2006 (3-1 to Bury) and at Gigg Lane in March 2014 (0-0).

Another notable Dale match refereed by Mr Drysdale was at Chester in October 2005.

Dale won 3-2, but the game is remembered more for the early collision between Matt Gilks and Gregg Blundell which wouldn’t have looked out of place at a 1982 World Cup meeting between France and West Germany!

The full list of Darren’s Dale matches as a referee is:

Oct 04 Rochdale v Macclesfield W 3-0

Oct 05 Chester v Rochdale W 3-2

Nov 06 Rochdale v Bury L 1-3

Jan 07 Wycombe v Rochdale D 1-1

Feb 08 Rochdale v Peterborough L 0-2

Sep 08 Rotherham v Rochdale D 2-2

Feb 11 Tranmere v Rochdale D 1-1

Apr 11 Rochdale v Brentford L 0-1

Oct 11 Rochdale v Chesterfield D 1-1

Mar 13 York v Rochdale D 0-0

Dec 13 Rochdale v Bristol R W 2-0