Craig Hicks will make the relatively short trip from Surrey to referee what should hopefully be Dale’s first game of 2022 at Colchester on Saturday.

Now in his fifth season on the National List, Saturday will be Craig’s fifth Dale game, with the previous four bringing mixed results.

In November 2018, he was the referee for our trip to Oxford, where Keith Hill’s much-changed Rochdale side put on an abject performance to lose 4-2.

However, it was a different story on the following Easter Monday when he took charge of Dale’s visit to Bristol Rovers.

While Ethan Hamilton’s late goal gave Dale a 1-0 win, results elsewhere meant we were practically safe from relegation after a remarkable turnaround in form and performances.

Mr Hicks’ was next the referee at Wycombe in January 2020, where an injury-time penalty after a foul by Luke Matheson gave the hosts a 2-1 victory.

Craig’s most recent Dale appointment came in April, when he made the long midweek trip to Spotland to oversee Dale’s game against Blackpool.

Ollie Rathbone scored the only goal of the game to hand Dale three points and raise hopes — subsequently dashed, of course — that we could escape the bottom four in League One.

A month before that match, Hicks had been appointed to Blackburn v Bristol City in the Championship, as a trial to assess his suitability for promotion to Select Group 2, although he subsequently missed out on the two available places.

This is Craig’s first game since 18th December, but up to then he had overseen 20 games this term, showing 57 yellow cards and five reds. He has already refereed Colchester this season, in their 2-0 home defeat to Salford at the start of October.

Photo: Action Images

Rochdale Polls