Dale will meet another new referee on Saturday when Ollie Yates takes charge of their League One game at home to Bradford.

The Staffordshire official is in his second season on the referees’ list, but this will be the first time he has refereed a Rochdale game.

Indeed, Mr Yates doesn’t have many league games to call on as his time on the list has been blighted by injuries.

Last season he officiated at 12 matches up to the end of October, before injury ended his campaign.

He returned to action just over a month ago and has refereed five games since then, the most recent being Cheltenham v Forest Green last Saturday.

Despite not having refereed Dale before, Ollie has been on the line for three of our matches.

The last of those was in April 2016 when Niall Canavan’s injury-time volley earned Dale a dramatic 2-2 home draw with Doncaster.

Photo: Action Images

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