Tom Nield is the man in the middle for Dale’s crucial game at Colchester United on Saturday.

The Barnsley official is in his sixth season on the National List, although this will be only his fifth Dale match.

Last season, Tom refereed both of Dale’s fixtures against Hartlepool, the first of which ended in a 2-1 defeat in the North-East in December and the second seeing Dale win 2-1 at home on Easter Monday thanks to Eoghan O’Connell’s remarkable injury time goal.

In the 2019/20 campaign, Mr Nield’s only other Dale games were our home and away fixtures against Accrington Stanley, both matches seeing Brian Barry-Murphy’s men pick up 2-1 victories.

History therefore tells us that 2-1 could be a good score to bet on at the weekend!

Tom was also due to referee Dale’s home fixture against Bristol Rovers in October 2017, but he was forced to withdraw a couple of days in advance, presumably through injury.

Saturday will be his ninth match of the season, with 16 yellow cards having been shown in the previous eight.

Mr Nield’s most recent game was Bristol Rovers v Lincoln last Saturday, in which the away side picked-up a stunning 6-3 win.

One final interesting piece of information about Tom is when he made the headlines in the Spring of 2020 when the first lockdown took place, due to his work with the Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust: https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/11970748/tom-nield-the-efl-referee

Photo: Action Images via Reuters