The familiar figure of Darren Drysdale will take charge of Dale’s local derby at Oldham on Saturday.

This will be Mr Drysdale’s 24th match involving Dale, although we haven’t seen him for quite a while, with his last appointment coming in the Leasing.com Trophy at Bradford back in November 2019.

Dale won that game 2-1, but were eliminated from the group stage of the competition on goal difference.

Darren’s first Rochdale appointment was way back in October 2004 when he was in the middle for a 3-0 home defeat of Macclesfield.

We also saw him three times against former EFL club bury, the games being a 3-1 win for The Shakers at Spotland in November 2006, the televised goalless draw at Gigg Lane in March 2014 and bury’s 1-0 FA Cup defeat of Dale in December 2015.

Another notable Dale match refereed by Mr Drysdale was at Chester in October 2005.

Dale won 3-2, but the game is remembered more for the early collision between Matt Gilks and Gregg Blundell which wouldn’t have looked out of place at a 1982 World Cup meeting between France and West Germany!

The full list of Darren’s Dale matches as a referee is:

Oct 2004 Rochdale v Macclesfield W 3-0
Oct 2005 Chester v Rochdale W 3-2
Nov 2006 Rochdale v bury L 1-3
Jan 2007 Wycombe v Rochdale D 1-1
Feb 2008 Rochdale v Peterborough L 0-2
Sep 2008 Rotherham v Rochdale D 2-2
Feb 2011 Tranmere v Rochdale D 1-1
Apr 2011 Rochdale v Brentford L 0-1
Oct 2011 Rochdale v Chesterfield D 1-1
Mar 2013 York v Rochdale D 0-0
Dec 2013 Rochdale v Bristol R W 2-0
Mar 2014 bury v Rochdale D 0-0
Apr 2015 Rochdale v Leyton Orient W 1-0
Aug 2015 Rochdale v MK Dons W 2-1 (Friendly)
Aug 2015 Blackpool v Rochdale W 2-0
Dec 2015 Rochdale v bury L 0-1 (FA Cup)
Mar 2017 MK Dons v Rochdale D 2-2
Oct 2017 Rochdale v Northampton D 2-2
Apr 2018 Rochdale v Plymouth D 1-1
Aug 2018 Burton v Rochdale W 2-1
Jan 2019 Peterborough v Rochdale L 1-2
Sep 2019 Peterborough v Rochdale L 0-6
Nov 2019 Bradford v Rochdale W 2-1 (Leasing.com Trophy)

So far this season, Drysdale has refereed 20 games, in which he’s shown 74 yellow cards and three reds. His most recent match was MK Dons v Doncaster last weekend.

Photo: Action Images

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