Andrew Kitchen will referee Dale for the second time in a fortnight when he takes charge of our opening fixture of the season against Crewe Alexandra on Saturday.

The County Durham official was in the middle for our recent friendly match at Darlington, but Saturday afternoon will be a game where more a more stringent style of refereeing will be required.

Mr Kitchen is in his second season on the National List and while Saturday is his third visit to Spotland, it is his first for a league match.

Last November he refereed Dale’s final group game in the Papa John’s Trophy against Bolton Wanderers, which ended in a 3-0 win for “the best team in League One”.

A month later, Andrew returned for the FA Cup second round tie versus Plymouth Argle, in which the visitors recorded a 2-1 victory.

All told last term, Kitchen refereed 29 matches, showing 69 yellow cards and two reds. His final outing of the campaign involved Saturday’s opponents, Crewe Alexandra, who were beaten at Lincoln at the end of April in their last match of the season.

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