Brett Huxtable will referee Dale for just the second time when we make the long midweek trip to Wycombe on Tuesday.

The Devon official is in his third season on the referees’ list and our only previous meeting with him came at AFC Wimbledon in March 2017, a game Dale lost 3-1 and had Keith Keane sent-off.

The vast majority of Mr Huxtable’s appointments have been in the south, although he has ventured to the Midlands in recent weeks with games at Coventry and Port Vale.

One of Brett’s other lengthy trips in September turned into quite an interesting afternoon.

Refereeing Southend v Charlton, Mr Huxtable ended-up showing seven yellow cards and sending-off three players in injury-time as tempers boiled over into a mass brawl after a collision by the corner flag.

Those were his only red cards of the season before the weekend, when he was down to referee MK Dons v Northampton, but Brett’s 12 appointments have yielded 34 yellow cards in total.

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