Referee Stephen Martin is the man in the middle for Dale’s League One game against Bristol Rovers on Saturday.

The Staffordshire-based whistler is in his ninth season on the league list and since the start of 2015/16, he has been a member of the Select Group 2 referees who mainly officiate in the Championship.

This season Stephen has refereed four games in that league, most recently Bournemouth v Bristol City on Wednesday night.

He has also taken charge of Coventry v QPR, Swansea v Millwall and Nottingham Forest v Rotherham this term.

Saturday will be Steve’s eighth Dale game, but only the third at the Crown Oil Arena. His previous visits were in April 2017 for the 1-1 draw against Bradford and five months later for Dale’s 3-0 loss to Blackburn.

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

Sep 2012 v Rotherham (a), W 3-2
Nov 2012 v Morecambe (a, FAC), D 1-1
Oct 2014 v Swindon (a), W 3-2
Feb 2015 v Walsall (a), L 2-3
Oct 2015 v Southend (a), D 2-2
Apr 2017 v Bradford (h), D 1-1
Sep 2017 v Blackburn (h), L 0-3

Photo: Action Images

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