Weather permitting, Matt Donohue will referee Dale for the second time this season when we make the short trip to Accrington on Saturday.

The Manchester official is in his debut season on the National List and we last saw him in October when he refereed our home game versus Bristol Rovers.

Fans will recall the match finished 0-0 and Dale ended proceedings with ten men after goalkeeper Magnus Norman was sent-off for a wild challenge on the edge of the area.

However, that wasn’t Matt’s first Dale game, as he was in charge of our pre-season friendly at Stockport last July, in which Ian Henderson missed a penalty, before Joe Thompson later scored the only goal of the night.

A former season ticket holder at Southend United, Donohue moved to Manchester 11 years ago and progressed through the ranks to become one of the top performing officials in the National League last season.

He refereed Sutton v Boreham Wood in the National League play-offs and started this term in mid-August with Colchester v Port Vale in League Two.

His early appointments were all in the south-east, as Matt possibly spent part of the summer back at his Essex roots.

A primary school teacher in Denton, Mr Donohue has now refereed 32 matches this term, showing 116 yellow cards and seven red.

His most recent appointment was Bradford v Peterborough last weekend.

Photo: Action Images

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