Preston referee Michael Salisbury will be the man in the middle for Tuesday’s Roses clash versus Barnsley.

Mr Salisbury is in his third season on the National List and this will be the second time he has refereed a Rochdale game after his appointment to last season’s Boxing Day fixture at Blackburn.

In 2014/15, Michael was promoted to a Premier League assistant referee and during that time he also joined the FIFA list, officiating at games in Malta and France.

However, in 2016 he opted to follow the refereeing route and after promotion to the National List, he kicked-off his league career with a game between Leyton Orient and Newport.

The PE teacher has refereed up and down the country in League One and League Two since then, with appointments taking him to such diverse locations as Oldham, Oxford, Carlisle, Bristol Rovers, Stevenage and Bury!

As is also often the case, Mr Salisbury has followed in the refereeing footsteps of his father, Graham Salisbury, who has officiated many Dale games down the years.

He started this term at Lincoln v Swindon on 11th August and has also refereed Tranmere v Walsall in the Carabao Cup and Mansfield v Colchester on Saturday.

Ref Ratings 2018-19
Darren England - Grimsby (a) 6.6
Darren Drysdale - Burton (a) 6.0
Dean Whitestone - Fleetwood (a) 5.2
Anthony Backhouse - Peterborough (h) 4.7

Photo: Action Images

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