Long-serving EFL referee Graham Salisbury is the man in the middle for Dale’s trip to Fleetwood on Saturday.

The Preston whistler has been on the league list since the start of the 2001/02 season and is a regular at our games down the years, with Saturday being his 20th Dale appointment, two of which were notable 4-2 away wins.

In March 2010 Graham was the referee for the 4-2 victory at Accrington which, as it transpired, proved to be the game that took Dale up from League Two.

Eighteen months later, in September 2011, he took charge of the 4-2 win at bury, in which Nicky Adams scored and was then sent-off for picking up a second yellow card after removing his shirt and waving it round his head!

We last saw Graham in August 2018 when he refereed the 2-1 home loss to Walsall, while his most recent Dale away match was in March 2018 when Stephen Humphrys’ goal earned us a 1-0 win at Rotherham.

The full list of Mr Salisbury’s Dale matches is:

Oct 01 Rochdale v Southport (LDV) W 2-0
Aug 04 Rochdale v Bury L 0-3
Oct 05 Rochdale v Notts Co W 3-0
Nov 05 Tranmere v Rochdale (LDV) L 2-3
Dec 05 Rochdale v Leyton Orient L 2-4
Apr 06 Notts Co v Rochdale D 1-1
Nov 08 Rochdale v Macclesfield D 1-1
Jul 09 Radcliffe v Rochdale (F) W 1-0
Dec 09 Rochdale v Morecambe W 4-1
Mar 10 Accrington v Rochdale W 4-2
Mar 11 Rochdale v Notts Co W 1-0
Sep 11 Bury v Rochdale W 4-2
Mar 12 Rochdale v Oldham W 3-2
Jan 16 Walsall v Rochdale W 3-0
Feb 16 Rochdale v Millwall L 0-1
Sep 16 Rochdale v Sunderland (CT) D 1-1 (won on pens)
Dec 16 Rochdale v Chesterfield (CT) L 0-2
Mar 18 Rotherham v Rochdale W 1-0
Jul 18 Rochdale v Middlesbrough (F) W 3-2
Aug 18 Rochdale v Walsall L 1-2

Before Tuesday, when he was due at Macclesfield v Newport, Graham had refereed six games this term, showing 18 yellow cards. His appointments have taken him from home in Preston to such diverse locations as Crawley, Bristol Rovers, Oxford and AFC Wimbledon.

Meanwhile his son, Michael Salisbury, refereed Dale’s recent Leasing.com Trophy home tie against Manchester City U21.

Photo: Action Images

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