Cumbrian referee Anthony Backhouse is the man in the middle for Dale’s final midweek fixture of the season against Oxford on Tuesday.

The Workington official is in his second season on the referees’ list and this will be his fourth Dale appointment in that time.

We first saw him on New Year’s Day 2018 when he refereed the 2-1 home loss to Blackpool, which turned into a thoroughly miserable affair played in pouring rain on an increasingly flooded pitch!

Anthony then returned to the Crown Oil Arena on the second weekend of this campaign for our 4-1 loss to Peterborough.

More recently, he was the fourth official on 5th January for Dale’s 4-0 home defeat by Burton.

Mr Backhouse joined the National List in 2017 after receiving the ultimate accolade in non-league football when he refereed Forest Green v Tranmere in the 2016/17 National League play-off final at Wembley.

He has since been in charge a large number of matches in League One and League Two and this term has received 32 ‘middles’ in which he has shown 86 yellow cards and five red.

Photo: Action Images

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